Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune
by Aleria14
Summary: While everyone is working hard on Leo's boat, old friends of Percy's start to appear and Jason begins to have dreams about Percy Jackson and what is to come. Soon, it will be time to set sail and find the mysterious camp and hopefully the missing camper.
1. Old friends stop by

**Hi everyone! I don't normally write for the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus fandom, but I thought that I'd give it a shot because I love it so much. Also I've been reading a lot of 'The Son of Neptune' fics that I really didn't seem to enjoy, so I thought that I'd write my own the way that I'd want it to happen. Heck, I wasn't evern going to post this and just write it for the sake of writing...but my addiction to ff.n got the best of me and I thought that I'd see how this went. Sorry to be so unorginial, but the way I see it, my idea is original, so I'm happy with that :)**

**Anyway, I hope that you enjoy my idea :) And I apologise in advance if I don't get a few Greek/Roman facts right. Just know that I really tried my best :(**

_**"In the name of the Gods what is that?" "A DISCLAIMER." "Ohh...": I don't own Heroes of Olympus, Percy Jackson or any of the characters mentioned in here. Those belong to an AMAZING Author named Rick Riordan ;) However I do own the plot...please don't steal ;( Be original, people!**_

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 1_

_Jason_

Jason's life suddenly became more complicated (even if Jason didn't think this was possible) when he found himself standing in the huge entrance hall – more commonly known as the atrium – of a huge, old Roman style house which he found to be quite familiar. The son of Jupiter stepped back in wonder as he took in the glossy white floors made of marble, the four huge pillars in each corner of the room and the skylight which allowed rays of light to flitter down onto the floor. All of the walls matched the floor aside from the back wall which was a huge mosaic of the 12 main Roman gods and the colours were so clear on it that it looked as if it were brand new and not thousands of years old like Jason knew it to be. In the middle of the room was a big pool of water – the impulvium – which had a fountain in the centre and was surrounded by twelve marble busts. He recognised each of them immediately; Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Mars, Mercury, Vulcan...all twelve of them he knew.

Jason smiled when he realised that he recognised everything in the atrium, but hardly had any time to enjoy it. His thoughts raced madly in his head while he tried to remember how he'd got there, but came up with nothing. Last he remembered he'd been desperately trying to get to sleep in his cabin back at Camp Half-blood…ah. That was it. He was dreaming. Dreaming about a place that he knew…

Suddenly, he heard voices over to the right talking in hushed tones and as he walked towards them they got louder.

_Who are you, boy?_ Someone scarily familiar growled and Jason knew that it was Lupa, the wolf goddess – the one who had tested him and then taken him to the camp.

He peeked out from behind a marble pillar and he could suddenly see them. Lupa, looking familiar as ever, was carefully circling a boy that looked slightly older than Jason did. He had dark brown, mattered hair and startling green eyes the colour of the ocean. He seemed so dazed and confused, but held his ground against the she-wolf. There was no doubt about it; this guy was the missing camper Percy Jackson.

"Don't tell her!" Jason wanted to shout, but his voice didn't work in this dream world. The less that Lupa knew, or Percy knew for that matter, the better off he was.

"I'm Percy," he said slowly, his eyes locked on hers without fear. That was a good start, Jason thought. Showing fear to Lupa was, in her eyes, showing weakness. He knew that her Demigods needed to be strong.

"But I don't remember anything else," he admitted with a confused frown. Jason secretly wondered if that was the face that he used every time he couldn't remember something from his past.

Lupa stopped circling him. _Are you sure that there isn't anything else that you know?_

Percy reached slowly into his pocket and gripped something. "Don't do that," Jason muttered to himself but, once again, no one else could hear him. He was just there to watch.

"I…I remember who my father is, Lupa," he said, as he fiddled with whatever was in his pocket nervously.

_Who?_ she asked, her wolf eyes narrowing.

Jason knew it was all over there. The moment that he said 'Poseidon' he was going to be in serious trouble.

"Neptune," he said surprising both Jason and Lupa. "My father is Neptune, God of the sea."

_Good,_ she said, _now let's see if you can fight. _Then she lunged at Percy and the dream changed.

Jason was now standing on a huge mountain of dark rock. He had no idea where he was but there was one thing that he recognised. There, right in front of him, was Porphyrion himself, standing tall on the mountain and tending to a fire. He looked about the same as when Jason had last seen him; scaly green dragons legs and bright green skin, hair with bloodied weapons woven throughout it and blank white eyes. If anything, he looked scarier than when Jason had first faced him. He was glad that this was only a dream.

"Oh great Gaea, please accept my offering!" He said and dropped a huge, dead pig onto the fire. For a quick moment, Jason wondered if 'Mother Earth' really liked the smell of dead pigs but he shook his head. He really needed to pay attention. "It is time that my brother, Polybotes, arose! Awaken brother, and we shall take down Olympus for good!"

At first nothing happened. The whole mountain was dead silent aside from the cackling of the fire and the heavy breathing of the giant. But then a low rumbling started to spread throughout the mountain and Jason could feel the earth beneath his feet shaking. Slowly, the rumbling below became louder and the ground started to shake fiercely. Jason lost his balance and fell to the floor but Porphyrion managed to stand his ground, smiling wickedly with sharp teeth. Then, slowly but surely, the earth beneath them started to split apart, separating Jason and Porphyrion with a jolt, but Jason forced himself up onto his knees so he could stare across at the jagged crack that had spread across the mountain. Deep inside the earth, something roared loudly, almost shattering Jason's eardrums in the process.

"Revenge!" It growled hungrily and Jason could hear it getting louder as it rose from deep inside the mountain. "I will have my revenge against Poseidon for trapping me! HE WILL PAY!"

"He will, brother!" Porhyrion shouted in reply. "But first, I must make our guest comfortable."

The giant turned straight towards Jason and almost seemed to focus his white, milky eyes on him. "Didn't Jupiter ever tell you not to eavesdrop, boy?" He said to Jason as if he could actually see him. "No matter. You do not stand a chance. You, and all of your kind, will fail. We'll make sure of that." Then he brought his twenty foot spear down on top of Jason and he was surrounded in a mist of darkness.

* * *

Jason woke with a start, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. He sat up in bed and glanced at his watch, cussing in Latin when he realised that it was six…in the morning. He was meant to be over there by five – and he would have been if it weren't for the plaguing nightmares keeping him awake all night. Rubbing his eyes hard and banishing the past night from his mind, he decided to get a move on.

Jumping out of his bunk, he quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and an orange Camp Half-blood t-shirt but still glanced over at his purple shirt from the Roman camp which he _still _couldn't remember the name of. Sighing, he picked it up and stuffed it under his pillow. Not yet, he thought, not yet.

When he was ready, he took one last look at the huge statue of Zeus in the room and bowed his head quickly before racing out the door.

"You're late!" Someone over to his right called. Looking over his shoulder as he ran, he saw the guy from the Hermes cabin – Travis stoll – who was shirtless and sprinting behind him.

"So are you!" He retorted.

"Well I– By the Gods! I forgot my shirt!" And with that, he turned jogged back towards his cabin. Jason was secretly glad that he wasn't the only one who'd overslept. It seemed that most of the other campers were as exhausted and disorientated as he was in the mornings.

By the time that Jason arrived at the huge limestone cliff deep within the forest he was sure that it was 6:30 and he was over an hour and a half late. He was so late in fact that the huge structure had been locked up as if to say 'come back again next time.' Jason hoped that Leo wasn't going to chew him out for this.

"Hello? Leo? Piper? Someone open up!" Jason shouted as he pounded his fist against the rough cliff. His hand hit painfully against the rock and he was surprised to find that it didn't sound hollow. If Jason didn't know better, he would have thought that there was nothing inside. But he did know better. And, therefore he kept shouting for someone to open the door.

"And what will you do if I don't open it, son?" A voice bellowed and Jason jumped, subconsciously looking at the sky thinking that his father was speaking to him or something. Not that that had ever happened before, but he couldn't rule it out. His father, Jupiter, was capable of that sort of thing after all.

"Leo, stop messing around with the loudspeaker," he said in annoyance, remembering that they'd discovered that a few days ago. The two boys had thought it could be used as a good prank to pull on other campers, making them think it was one of their parent's talking to them. Leo had tried it out on Connor Stoll last week after he'd tipped water all over Leo's bed and short-circuited it completely. But the difference was that Leo had managed to fix the bed within a couple of days while Connor was _still _trying to figure out how to get ahold of a magic Cappuccino maker that also told jokes to give to his 'father.' He hadn't put two and two together, even though the obvious thing was that Olympus was closed and none of the gods were in contact.

"I am not Leo!" he continued. "I am Zeus, Lord of the sky!"

"Come on, Leo," Jason said, figuring that this was Leo's punishment for being late. "If you really were my father, you'd be calling yourself Jupiter, remember? Now quit fooling around with the loudspeaker before my dad really does get angry and blasts you to pieces."

Jason heard Leo sigh, but it sounded deep and echoey over the speaker . "Fine, Jason. Opening the door."

Jason stepped back as the door swung open quickly, almost tripping on a loose rock as he did so. But what he saw on the other side made his eyes widen in awe. The whole of bunker 9 had been completely rearranged to suit its new needs. All of the worktables that had been evenly dispersed around the room when they first found it had been pushed out to the edges of the airplane sized hangar, still with the blueprints sitting on the top of most of them. All of the garage sized doors were open and almost every demigod at the camp was coming in and out continuously, carrying large pieces of metal, – celestial bronze – wood, and other materials Jason didn't recognise. Above them, where the sign that read 'Bunker 9' in Greek hung, there was now a new sign that read 'Project Argo II' in Latin. But these things weren't what really made Jason amazed. In the centre of the room was the frame of a gigantic ship about the size of a small airplane with the Hephaestus campers around the outside, working madly.

Jason blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, but before he had time to question the effects that lack of sleep clearly had on him, Leo ran over and patted him on the back.

"Good morning sunshine. Glad you could finally join us. Overslept?"

Jason nodded. "That's what happens when you request that everyone meet here at five in the morning."

"Hey, everyone else managed to get here to help the cause," Leo said, gesturing around at all of the campers working hard on the ship.

Jason decided to let it go and muttered a sorry as he continued to stare at the huge ship in amazement. "What did you guys do? Stay up all night?"

"Something like that."

"And…the other campers?" Jason asked, watching as some of the Aphrodite campers – Pipers brothers and sisters – offered food and drinks to everyone as they worked.

"That would be my doing," someone said from behind them and Leo and Jason whirled around. There stood Chiron, the Camp director of Camp Half-blood who also happened to be a centaur and the trainer of Demigods. "This is our new major project, so until it is complete all morning activities are cancelled. The Hephaestus cabin are doing most of the work of course, I just thought they could use…reinforcements."

"I never said that we needed…" Leo trailed off as he looked between the huge boat and Chiron. "Yeah, reinforcements are great."

Leo looked back towards the boat again and frowned when one of the campers, who almost appeared to be sleep walking, started hammering at a beam, beginning to split the wood.

"HEY!" he yelled and cursed in ancient Greek. "Be careful with that! Oh, great…I'll talk to you later Jason."

And with that, he ran off to assess the damage.

Jason's eyes then skimmed across the room until they landed on Piper. The daughter of Aphrodite was leaning over one of the workbenches and examining one of the boat blueprints that Leo had drawn up from a different angle. Upon sensing that someone was looking at her she glanced over her shoulder and waved at Jason before going back to work.

Now that she was the head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin, Piper had really started to change. Her dark hair had finally started to even out and dropped nicely past her shoulders, her rainbow eyes now carried intelligence and happiness and Jason could have sworn that she was slightly taller than she had been when they'd first gone out on their quest over a month ago. But that wasn't all that had changed about Piper. Jason had also noticed that she now had an amazing confidence in herself that seemed to make her shine.

Chiron followed his gaze and then put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't look like you slept well, my boy."

Jason moved his eyes away from Piper and back onto the ship as he shook his head. "I had a dream."

"Hmm, this does not surprise me," Chiron said in understanding. "May I ask what it was about?"

Jason opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off by someone shouting behind them.

"Chiron! Look who's come back!"

Annabeth, daughter of Athena and the girlfriend of the missing camper Percy Jackson, was walking swiftly towards them. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a loose braid and her grey eyes were shining with pure happiness for the first time since Jason had met her. Following her was a young satyr who was trotting to keep up. He had long curly hair with horns sticking out high above it and reed pipes around his neck. And, of course, his legs were covered in thick shaggy brown fur complete with goat hooves – like all satyrs. But although he seemed glad to be back at camp, Jason could see sadness and worry in his brown eyes. But Jason didn't have much time to focus on the Satyr because coming up behind Annabeth was…was…

"Annabeth!" Jason called desperately, unsheathing his Gladius that he'd received from Hera. "Look out, behind you!"

Jason lunged at the monster with his Roman sword, his adrenalin rushing through his body. But just as he was about to strike, he was hit in the face with a butt of a knife – hard. Jason groaned as he hit the concrete floor and glared up at Annabeth.

"Are you crazy? There's a Cyclops behind you!" He shouted at her.

Chiron chuckled as if understanding some weird inside joke and clopped his hooves against the floor. "I'll leave everyone to get acquainted," he said, turning to the Cyclops and the Satyr. "I'm glad that you two have arrived back here safely – even if the news isn't as you could have hoped."

"You can say that again," the Satyr muttered but Chiron ignored him.

"If anyone needs me, I will be at the big house meeting our other guests," he finished and then galloped somewhat dramatically out of the bunker.

Annabeth stared after him for a minute before turning to the Cyclops and the Satyr again. "Jason, this is Tyson, Percy's half brother," she said gesturing to the Cyclops. "Tyson, this is Jason, son of Zeus. Or in his case, Jupiter."

"Hi Cousin," he said, his bright, brown eye shining. "Nice, big ship."

Jason blinked in astonishment and made note that the missing – but somewhat found – camper was starting to sound really weird.

"And this," Annabeth continued, pointing at the Satyr, "is Grover, one of my old friends…and Percy's best friend. They've just come back from looking for him. We've…we've called everyone back now that we have an idea where he is. There's no use in having them out there when they're not going to be able to find anything. Everyone is better off here."

The satyr, Grover, reached down and took Jason's hand, helping him up. "Nice to meet you," he said, avoiding his gaze.

Jason nodded and stood. "It's funny that you should mention Percy Jackson."

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because I had a dream about him last night."

* * *

**So...there you have it. I know it's sounding a bit boring at the moment, but things will pick up. More of the characters that we know and love will be on their way back soon too :) Including Percy. We'll definitely see more of the son of Neptune soon ;) I also have some interesting and original plans for where the Roman camp will be...but you'll have to keep reading to find out. MUHAHAHAHA. So evil.**

**Review?**

**-Bell**


	2. The Gods change the rules

**Here's the next chapter guys :) But first, THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING! That really means a lot to me :D Anyway, I'll let you guys read now. Enjoy!**

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 2_

_Jason_

Annabeth gripped Jason's wrist, her eyes pleading. "What was it about?"

Jason pulled his wrist away from her iron grip and rubbed it with his other hand. Jeez that girl was strong. "It's hard to say exactly, but-"

"Tyson! Thank the gods you're here," Nyssa said running over and taking his arm, beginning to lead him away. "We need someone to help with the heavier lifting and building."

"But he's …he's…" Leo stuttered as he made his way back over, Piper in tow. They both seemed to be in shock. Like Jason, they were both still slightly terrified after their encounter with Cyclopes on their recent quest.

"Our _friend_," Annabeth finished, shooting them both a look but they still looked uncomfortable.

Tyson, seeming to understand completely, frowned and nodded. "Not all Cyclops are bad. I am not. I just want to find my brother." He sniffed loudly and tears started rolling down his cheeks.

The funny thing was, Jason could understand where he was coming from. In a way, he and Tyson were looking for the same thing – family – and he had no right to treat him like that, whether he was a Cyclops or not.

"I'm sorry, Tyson," Jason said with a sad smile, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "We'll find him, ok? I can promise you that."

"Son of Jupiter," Tyson said slowly, seeming to understand everything pretty quickly. "If I build the boat, will it help find my brother?"

"Yeah, of course," Jason said.

"Then I will help build the boat," he replied, following Nyssa over to the ship.

"And I guess I'll, uh…go help the Aphrodite campers with the food and drinks. Yeah, I'll do that," Grover muttered and ran off quickly towards Mitchell and some of his sisters.

"Is he ok?" Jason asked and Annabeth sighed then nodded. "He's just really tired after his long search and a little bit nervous around you."

"Me? Why?" Jason asked.

"It's-"

"A long story?" Piper guessed.

"How did you know?" She said with a small smile, but it was gone as soon as it had come and she became dead serious really quickly. "Now tell me about this dream that you had, Jason."

And so, Jason told her everything making sure not to leave any details out. When he was finished, Annabeth's face was really pale.

"If Porphyrion is freeing the rest of the giants, this cannot be good," she concluded. "It also means that we're running out of time."

"So Polybotes is another one of the giants that attacked Olympus?" Piper asked.

"Yes," Annabeth said slowly. "What Jason saw…well, Polybotes was chased by Poseidon across the ocean to the island of Kos. Poseidon then buried him under a rock which is now known as the mountain Nisyros and he has been trapped there ever since."

"Until now," Jason added quietly.

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"How about we focus on the silver lining here," Leo supplied. "At least your boyfriend's alive."

"Yeah," Jason said. "But then there's the stuff about the dream that's been bothering me. Like, _when _exactly didmy dream happen? I mean, I've been here for over a month. Surely Percy wouldn't have just found the camp now. It's been too long."

"And what about what he said to Lupa," Annabeth said thoughtfully, "he said 'Neptune' when his first thought would have been Poseidon."

"Unless…" Jason trailed off but then shook his head. It wasn't possible. He knew for certain that the others wouldn't accept him if they knew. The idea was crazy.

"Unless what, Jason?" Annabeth asked quietly. The happy glow that Jason had seen in her eyes ten minutes before had vanished once again and she was back to what she had been; tense, sad and worried. But Jason could see a glimmer of hope in her eyes. It was the only thing that she seemed to have.

"Don't worry. It's not possible."

"Look," she said, looking at Jason hard. "I don't care if your theory is that a giant flying pig is giving Percy answers on how to survive there. I just want to hear it. I don't know what's happening to him and I _can't stand _not knowing."

"A flying pig giving him the answers?" Leo asked jokingly and Annabeth sighed, but not in annoyance.

"It was just an example," she said slowly. "But not completely impossible. Percy killed it last summer but it could reform."

Jason wondered if it was also possible that Annabeth was finally losing it...

"Anyway, tell me, Jason."

"Alright, alright," he said, glancing over at Piper. She was looking at him intently, silently telling him to talk. "My theory is that Percy is getting inside help from someone at the Roman camp."

"And you thought _that _was more impossible than the flying pig?" Leo asked in disbelief. "Dude, what goes on at your camp?"

"I wish I knew" he said with a sigh. "The only things I remember are some of my friends faces and names, Lupa, and bits and pieces of my training and defeating Krios. That's it. And even those are blurry."

"We know Jason, but is there anyone that you think could be helping Percy from the inside?" Annabeth urged, looking as if she was trying to piece everything together in her mind.

Jason thought for a moment, running a hand through his hair. "Not that I can think of."

"Great," Annabeth said in annoyance, staring to sound angry. "Back to the beginning again – not knowing. I wish I knew where Hera found the sudden authority to mess around with so many people's lives!"

She'd said the last part louder than she'd wanted to and everyone paused to look over at us. Most of them looked at Annabeth with sympathy in their eyes while others pretended that they hadn't heard anything and went back to work. This only seemed to make Annabeth angrier and she swiftly turned on her heel, storming out of the bunker.

"Is she going to be ok?" Jason muttered, as the three stared after her.

"I'll check up on her," Piper said after a while and then followed her out of the bunker. Jason watched after her until she was out of sight.

"Well this morning has been completely suckish," Leo said decisively staring at Jason.

"And it's about to get much worse, Mr. Vandelz."

Jason spun around for the third time that morning to see a strange man in leopard print shirt and grey shorts with sandals. He scowled at them with watery, puffy red eyes that suggested he'd hardly ever been sober in his life and his breath smelled faintly of grapes. His hair was so black that it almost appeared to be purple and it curled around his slightly chubby face. _Who was this clown?_ Jason thought. But he had a sense that he'd seen him briefly before.

"Uh, it's Valdez," Leo said, eyeing him curiously and fiddling with some of the nuts and bolts that he always kept in his pocket.

"Huh?"

"My name is Leo Valdez."

"That's what I said!"

Jason glanced over at Leo but it was clear that he'd decided to let it go.

"Who _are _you?" Jason asked, glaring at him.

"You must be Johnson," the weird guy said, looking at Jason.

"It's Jason…"

"Oh, that's right! The other one is Johnson. Peter Johnson."

"Who!" Jason demanded, feeling really confused. He could hear Leo suppressing laughter which wasn't helping.

"Bah! He is unimportant. Anyway, Chiron sent me over to watch the stupid campers build the stupid ship," he said glaring at everything as if he hated everyone in the room. "I can't believe that I'm back at this place."

"Hang on, back to the first question. Who in the name of the gods are you?" Jason asked angrily, glaring at him.

"Hey! No need to use that term around me, boy. Now calm yourself before I decide to turn you into a dolphin!" He said angrily, glaring harshly at Jason.

Suddenly, Jason finally recognised him.

"Bracchus," he said, his expression relaxing. "Or Dionysus. The god of wine."

"So you're the wine dude? Awesome!" Leo interrupted.

"Don't– why does everyone call me that?" Dionysus asked angrily, glaring at all the campers once more as they began to stare. "What are you looking at? Get back to work!"

Everyone seemed to move faster after that.

"But wait a minute, I thought that all of the gods had been ordered to stay away from us," Jason said, remembering.

"I wish that were still true, Joshua. Then I wouldn't be here," Dionysus muttered. "But when Zeus found out that that little witch had influenced him into closing Olympus, well, he became very angry. He caused horrible storms for over a week until Hera was able to calm him down and propose the idea to open Olympus again. But Zeus wanted to...discuss the matter further so he called the council of the Gods together. Eventually we decided it was best to open Olympus again. I was unfortunately outvoted. Satisfied by that explanation?"

"Which side were you on?" Leo asked, clearly sceptical of the god's reason for being at camp.

"Which side do you think, Lopez?" Dionysus asked with a huff. "You think I _want _to be here? So now Olympus is back in business and apparently Zeus still believes that I have fifty years to work off to complete my punishment. Even after all the hard work I've done– "

Thunder roared loudly in the sky.

"Alright! I'm sorry!" He seemed to shout at no one, but Jason got a feeling that his father had something to do with it.

"What did you do? It must have been pretty bad considering you're a god and everything," Leo continued, ignoring the fact that Dionysus had said his name wrong again. That was the thing about demigods; they all say what pops into their heads and never seem to think it over.

However, this time in reply the god sent a glare at Leo that said 'don't go there' and then turned to Jason again. He gave him a once over before speaking.

"Like everyone else, I still believe that Hera's plan is not going to end well. The only good thing that I see coming out of it is the idea that perhaps you will all kill each other and I will no longer have to deal with _you_," he said, emphasising the word 'you' as if all demigods were garbage or something. "And I also like how the plan involves Peter Johnson going "missing." It was about time that he learned some discipline."

Peter Johnson. Missing? Jason thought hard, trying to figure out what he was going on about. But then it clicked. Dionysus was getting names wrong. Peter Johnson. Percy Jackson. Jason was so tired that he almost laughed at the joke but didn't because he had an idea.

"Then that means that you must know where he is, right? Meaning that you also know where the other camp is. You could help us."

Dionysus's face seemed to darken. "Why do you think that I would like to help _you, _Jonah? And even if I wanted to, I couldn't. That was one of the rules that all of the gods had to accept before opening Olympus; we are not to meddle with Hera's plan. Otherwise Olympus will be closed for good."

**Dun dun dun! Don't worry, there will be more action soon. These are just the start up chapters.**

**R&R?**

**-Bell**


	3. A God actually offers to help?

**Here's another chapter, guys :) It's a bit choppy at the start - I'll admit that - but it's starts flowing better as it goes I think. This is what I get when I'm too exhausted to write :P I blame all of the research that I've been doing for this fic. I have two books from the library and I spent an hour going through them, learning about various villans in the myths. Thus, expect a few new badies to show their faces along with some old foes that Percy just couldn't get rid of ;)**

**Enjoy the chapter, guys :D**

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 3_

_Piper_

Piper ran through the forest quickly, calling Annabeth's name.

Like everyone else who had stared at Annabeth after her outburst, Piper wasn't angry at her. She understood completely why the daughter of Athena had shouted like that. She actually knew that feeling all too well - it reminded her of when she herself had found out that she and Jason weren't really together. She could remember very clearly the pain and heartache that she'd suffered when Annabeth told her about the mist and how all of her work to get Jason to kiss her wasn't real. And then it got even worse when she had that intense desire to hold his hand or kiss him when she knew that she couldn't. It was almost unbearable. And Piper could only imagine what Annabeth must have been going through; not being able to be with him the way she wanted with the stress of not knowing what was happening to him on top of that. And yet, the older girl had managed to hold it together day after day for the entire month while helping design the Argo II – but it was obvious to Piper that her heart wasn't in it. It was like she was there, but her mind was somewhere else, desperately searching for someone that she couldn't find.

Not to mention that seeing Annabeth in that much pain all the time distracted Piper from her task of trying to get Jason back for real. How could she even _attempt _to do that when one of her friends had just experienced her boyfriend ripped roughly away from her for no reason?

After searching the cabin and the dining hall, Piper found Annabeth sitting on the beach, staring out at the ocean. At first, she just stood and stared at the older girl awkwardly but eventually got up the nerve to go over. Annabeth was her friend, and she'd done so much for her. The least she could do was try to make her feel better about all of this craziness.

So the daughter of Aphrodite carefully sat down next to her and the soft sand shifted, but Annabeth didn't look her way.

"It's been a month," Annabeth murmured, her eyes locked on the glistening water. "I've been completely useless for a month."

"You're not useless," Piper assured her, running her fingers through the sand. "You've been looking tirelessly for him and you haven't given up hope."

Annabeth shook her head and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "But what good has any of that done? Percy is still out there somewhere and we don't know where, his mother and stepdad are worried sick, I don't know _what_ I'm feeling anymore and I can't help but think that…" she cut herself off and buried her face in her knees, no longer wanting to stare at the ocean. That made sense to Piper now. The sea probably reminded her of him.

Piper patted her awkwardly on the back and decided to take a risk. "You can't help but think what?"

Annabeth sat up quickly and Piper waited to be yelled at or told off but it never came. Instead Annabeth just gave her the same helpless look that Piper had seen when they were talking about Jason and Percy in Rachel's cave, except now it seemed to be even sadder. She appeared to be more lost, tired and depressed than Piper had ever seen her. It was only now that she saw how hard Annabeth had to work to keep herself together, and when she was alone, she just fell apart.

"I can't help but think that this is somehow my fault," she finally said, letting out a shaky breath. "I think that everything Hera's done has not only fit into her plan, but it has also been the ultimate way to get to me…to get me back for what I said to her. Maybe if I hadn't said what I said…" she trailed off and took a deep breath, looking out over the ocean again.

Piper sighed. "Annabeth, none of this could be your fault. Hera used Percy and Jason because she knew that it would make an impact on the two camps. And although I'm not going to deny that hurting you could have been an added bonus for Hera, I don't think that was the main reason for all of this. I guess that all of this just…had to happen. The two camps need to be united to stop Gaea from rising. And, although I don't know him personally, I think that Percy would have wanted to help. If he was as brave as you say he was when he lead the battle against Kronos, then I don't think he would have wanted to just sit around while the world fell apart," she finished, surprised by her own advice.

Annabeth stared at Piper for a moment, completely speechless and trying to figure out what to say next but it turns out, she never had to say anything.

"Right you are, Piper McLean," a voice said from far in front of them and they both jumped to their feet in surprise.

Piper looked around them curiously – at the water and on the beach – but no one was there. Her eyes then shifted towards Annabeth but she was staring at the ocean with wide eyes. Following her line of vision, Piper quickly noticed that the waves had stopped completely and the sea had become eerily calm. This, however, lasted for only a moment before a head broke the surface of the water. The rest of him seemed to appear as he walked, revealing a tall man with glittering sea green eyes, dark hair and a deep tan. He was wearing a pair of khaki Bermuda shorts with sandals and a dark blue Hawaiian shirt with fish of amazing colours swimming on it. But, that was the thing, the fish were actually _swimming_ around on his shirt. They darted around his torso as if they were playing a never ending game of tag. It was amazing.

But, despite the bright, colours on his shirt, the man did not look happy. His expression was extremely hard as if he had just had an argument with someone and didn't want to be pushed too far. Piper decided to be careful with what she said around him or he just might let those fish out of his shirt to attack her or something. That, or he'd spike her with that sharp pointed trident he held in his right hand.

"Poseidon," Annabeth said with respect, bowing her head slightly. Piper figured that she'd sensed the god's mood as well. She bowed her head too.

"Hello Annabeth. Piper," he replied shortly.

"But…" Annabeth said suddenly, a confused look on her face. "Uh, not to be rude, but what are you doing here?"

The god raised an eyebrow at her and the fish on his shirt stopped swimming and seemed to acknowledge her for a moment before going back to what they had been doing beforehand.

"No, I mean, Olympus has been closed for ages. The Gods have been silent-"

"That has been discussed amongst the council of the Gods," he told her, coming out of the water and onto the beach in front of them. "After discovering that he had been tricked, Zeus called us together and we decided to open Olympus again. However it was on the grounds that we do not interfere with Hera's plans to bring the two camps together."

By the way that Poseidon said the last part, Piper could sense that he was not happy with this arrangement.

"I guess that you don't think that Hera's plan is going to work either?" Piper asked and the god turned his green eyes onto her.

"I never said that," he said slowly and thoughtfully. "But I will admit that I am not happy that she had to use my son to accomplish this - which brings me to why I am here."

Carefully, the god reached into his pocket and took out an envelope with waves drawn across the top, a bed of sand on the bottom and a fancy shell doodled in the corner. Naturally, Piper had a few questions that she wanted to ask like "So the Gods have their own personalised stationary?" and "How come the envelope wasn't wet even though you just walked out of the ocean?" But she brushed them off while she tried to focus on the two words that were written across the front. Too bad they were in Latin.

"Since I want to see Gaea rise about as much as you do and Percy is involved without being consulted, Hera and I have come to an agreement," he said, looking between the two girls. "Because Jason's memory is still cloudy, Hera has allowed me to give Jason a clue as to where the camp is. She has also agreed to let me give you this." He opened up his hand and revealed a small, pale pink shell about the length of Piper's little finger. Near the opening was a hole where a fine strand of silver string was threaded through. It was so fine in fact that Piper was surprised that it wasn't falling apart.

He handed the shell to Annabeth and she held it carefully in her hand. "When you need my help most, blow through the opening and I shall answer. But only once."

"Like the Stygian ice whistle Daedalus gave to Percy," Annabeth muttered, staring at the shell and Poseidon nodded.

"I would like to give you more help, but I fear that if I do any more than I have the fates may change. And that, as you know, would be disastrous."

Piper looked at the two of them doubtfully. "But how will we know when we need-"

"You'll just know," Poseidon answered, smiling slightly for the first time since Piper had met him. He'd probably answered the same question quite a lot.

He then gave Piper the letter and looked back towards the ocean. "Get this to Jason. See if it will help trigger his memory."

Piper nodded and slipped the letter into her pocket, making sure that it was secure so she didn't lose it.

"Poseidon," Annabeth said slowly, staring at him with sad eyes. "Do you think that this is going to work?"

Poseidon regarded her for a moment as if he were trying to figure out how to phrase what he was going to say. "To be honest, I do not know what to make of Hera's plan. Most of the other Olympians are quick to say that it won't work. But I am not so sure. For now I have decided to see how it plays out and go with it. Maybe this is also good advice for you, daughter of Athena."

Annabeth blushed and looked away.

Piper thought about what he said for a moment and then smiled when she realised something. "Go with it. Like flowing water, right? "Go with the flow." You're letting it take you along its own path."

This actually made Poseidon laugh which surprised her. "Very clever, Piper. "_Go with the flow_." I like that."

Despite herself, Piper actually felt a tinge of embarrassment. It was like one of her older relatives had tried to say something cool and failed. But she decided to let Poseidon have his moment.

"Okay then, I think it's time," he said, his smile fading. "Remember what I told you. Good luck."

And with that, his body melted into a sparkling salt water form of himself and then was blown away from head to toe by the wind.

Piper didn't know how long it was that they stared off across the ocean, but eventually Annabeth broke the silence. "Come on," she said, carefully slipping the silver cord around her neck and tucking the shell into her shirt. "Let's go get breakfast and give Jason the note."

**Alright, I just _had _to bring Poseidon in somehow. I figured that he wouldn't have been happy with the idea of Hera using his son as a pawn to get two fighting camps together, so he's pretty ticked off in this...for the most part. Oh, and I had an upcoming problem with this fic, so I let old seaweed beard help out the heroes. He's done a pretty good job ;)**

**Go with the flow and review! ;) kidding :P You don't have to go with the flow. Reviewing would be nice though!**

**-Bell**


	4. A clue and a prophecy

**Okay...so a few apologies to make. First off though, sorry about the wait. Although this chapter is poorly written and really choppy, it was extremely hard to write. Mainly because of the prophecy and the clue for Jason had to be just right or it wouldn't work. And the other reason is that I was kind of afraid of writing this chapter when I hadn't had anything planned properly. But I've sorted it all out now.**

**Secondly, I'm gonna admit that I'm not happy at all with this chapter...so I'll just see how it goes. If you don't like it, just keep in mind that it's a filler and more action is coming up. All of the solutions will unravel soon enough ;)**

**Thirdly, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I'm really starting to get into the spirit! I even wrote a Christmas oneshot for PJO called "Annual Camp Half-blood Christmas party" if any of you are interested in checking it out...you don't have to of course. But I'm just trying to spread the Christmas cheer!**

**Jeez, I sound like a greeting card. Enjoy the chapter! **

* * *

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 4_

_Piper_

Piper and Annabeth didn't say a word as they hiked up the hill towards the dining pavilion, and none of them dared open the envelope either. They'd both silently agreed that it was for Jason's eyes only...and then there was the fact that it was most likely in Latin and they probably couldn't read it anyway.

But by the time they got there, they were already extremely late. Campers were crowded around tables and talking loudly together and Piper could feel her stomach rumbling. She really hadn't noticed how hungry she was until she could see everyone else eating.

"How about we eat first and then we'll talk to Jason when everyone else starts to leave?" Annabeth suggested, clear that she didn't want to cause a scene.

Piper agreed. She guessed that the moment that she and Annabeth strode over to Jason, no matter how casually, someone would notice and come over. Then another, and another and then the rest would follow. All of the demigods seemed to be so excited about the other camp and the idea of finding Percy Jackson that they wanted to be in on all of the information and kept in the loop. So, naturally, Jason, Piper, Leo, Annabeth and Chiron had agreed to try and tone everything down unless they actually _needed _to know.

The two girls split up quickly as if they hadn't been late and hadn't met each other and Piper made her way over to her table. But when she got there, she was pounded by questions about where she'd been and if she'd found out any more news about the camp.

"Annabeth and I were just having a girl to girl talk, that's all," she told them, picking up her plate and making her way over to the fire. She made her sacrifice out to her mother and then came back quickly, feeling the effects of hunger washing over her again.

"We don't believe you," Mitchell told her, narrowing his eyes. "Something's going on. Spill."

Piper scoffed at him as she greedily dug into her pancake. "Nothing's going on, alright? Jeez, can't two girls go for a walk along a beach and talk about-" she stopped talking abruptly. Note to self; don't be so distracted by your mouthwatering pancakes that you lose track of what you're saying.

"Talking about what?" Lacy coaxed with a giggle, glancing at Jason.

Piper scowled. "Not about that. _Other, _personal stuff. Don't you know what that means?"

"No," everyone at the table chorused and Piper felt like sinking under the table and pretending not to exist.

"Well it's not my business to tell," she said, starting to stuff her face again. "And it's nothing that concerns you."

"Then it's about Percy then," Lacy stage whispered and Piper blinked in surprise.

"No, it wasn't."

"It must have been!" Lacy exclaimed and the other campers nodded.

"Why do you think that?" Piper asked. It was a fair question – everyone at the table seemed to agree as if it all made perfect sense when Piper didn't quite understand how they'd guessed so quickly.

"Well," Lacy started. "You say that it's not your business, so it must be about Annabeth. And you two were obviously having a heart to heart talk about something serious that didn't involve finding the Roman camp otherwise you wouldn't have minded sharing. So that leaves the obvious thing; Annabeth's boyfriend. I'm right, aren't I?"

Piper just stared at her. She'd become much more talkative since Drew had backed off. Or was it just because the conversation had moved to something private that involved relationships? Piper concluded that that was it. Definitely.

"Don't worry, it's safe with us," Lacy said and the whole table smiled mischievously. Great. If Annabeth found out about this she'd be in deep trouble. And having an Athena camper as an enemy was _not _a good idea.

"So that's it?" Drew suddenly piped up from the other end of the table. "You're not going to tell us the gossip about Annabeth and her missing boyfriend? What kind of a daughter of Aphrodite are you?" Piper was actually surprised to hear her speak. Ever since Piper had taken her position as head counselor she'd been an outcast amongst their group and she didn't talk much. But Piper knew that she still had to watch her back – her half-sister _definitely_ wanted revenge.

"One that doesn't tell her friend's secrets," she shot back, shrugging.

"I'm sure it's not _that_ private. You should tell us. Right guys?" she said innocently, and everyone nodded.

"Come on, Piper," Mitchell said. "Tell us."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Nice charm speaking there, Drew. But I'm not telling you anything. If you're that desperate to know, ask Annabeth."

That shut her up. But she knew that it wasn't over. Drew was up to something...and whatever it was, it wasn't good.

After that was put behind them, Piper finished her breakfast and everyone started filing out of the pavilion to get back to building the boat before their afternoon activities started. Piper told her siblings that she'd catch up after she talked to Leo about some new construction plans – which didn't interest them in the slightest – and managed to grab his arm and drag him over to the Zeus table where Annabeth had already got Jason to wait.

"What's going on?" Jason asked, looking between the three of them.

"Hey! Don't look at me," Leo said, leaning against the table. "I was dragged over here against my will! I've been kidnapped!"

"And we're putting you through so much torture too, Valdez. I know that listening to secret information about the still un-named Roman camp is hard for you, but try and listen," Piper said with fake sympathy. He raised his eyebrows in shock.

"What do you know?" Jason asked quickly, looking between them.

"Poseidon gave us a visit," Annabeth said matter-of-factly as if that explained everything. "And-"

"Wait, hold up. You get a visit from Poseidon who's the father of this Percy guy and probably knows a _lot_ about this whole thing, while we get a visit from the wine dude who looks like a cherub, thinks my name is Vandelz and won't tell us squat? That's not cool!" Leo interrupted, crossing his arms.

"Dionysus?" Annabeth asked and Jason and Leo nodded.

"They announced his arrival before you and Piper showed up and then he and Chiron disappeared. Don't know where."

"Okay," Piper said, taking the envelope from her pocket and putting it on the table. Jason's eyes widened when he read the front but Piper ignored that for now. "How about we stay on topic?"

Annabeth nodded and then told them about their talk with the sea god. Once she'd finished, Piper slid the letter across the table to Jason. "We decided to let you open it first."

"And that has nothing to do with the fact that it's in Latin and you can't read it, does it?" Jason asked with a smirk.

"Oh shut up," Piper replied, rolling her eyes and Jason opened the letter quickly, not stopping to save the envelope.

Everyone seemed to hold their breath as he read and as he did so, his face slowly turned into a frown.

"What's it say?" Annabeth asked, leaning in and trying to decipher it.

"The front says happy birthday, but I don't _think_ that it's my birthday...uh...no, it's not. And the letter itself…well…

_"Child of Lightning, __beware the earth,_

_Giant's revenge the seven shall birth,_

_The forge and dove shall break the cage,_

_And death unleash through Hera's rage."_

"So, recap," Leo said, interrupting everyone else's confusion. "The god of the sea went to the trouble of visiting you to give you a prophecy that's already happened?"

"I guess," Jason said with a frown. "But the words _'beware the earth'_ are underlined. So I guess that's the clue."

"But wait," Annabeth added thoughtfully. "Are you sure that it's not your birthday?"

Jason seemed to think it over for a minute before nodding. "Positive."

"In that case, I'd say that the 'happy birthday' is a clue too. Something must have happened on your last birthday."

"You wouldn't happen to remember what happened on your birthday, would you?" Piper asked hopefully.

Jason scrunched up his face for a few moments. "Unfortunately, no. This is starting to get really annoying. I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's not your fault," she assured him. "We'll figure it out."

Jason held her gaze as if trying to believe her before looking away. She knew that he felt really guilty about this and made note to talk to him later.

"This is a really confusing clue," Annabeth said in annoyance. "Couldn't it have been more direct?"

"That doesn't seem like the gods' style," Leo said, biting at his lip. "Otherwise it would say: 'The camp is located here. Find a map and go to these co-ordinates. You can't miss it.' If you're a god, where's the fun in that?"

"True. But don't worry about it, Jason. We'll figure it out and-"

"Annabeth!" someone shouted from the other side of the Pavilion and came running over. Piper remembered that his name was Will.

"What is it?" She asked, eyebrow raised.

"Rachel has been taken over by the oracle again…and she's asking for Jason," he said, glancing at Jason who looked stunned.

"That's weird," she concluded. "Since when does the oracle _ask_ for someone to go to her?"

"Since she just did a few minutes ago!" He said grabbing Jason's arm and pulling him out of his seat. "Come on!"

The small group bolted straight down the hill towards the large group of campers, crowded around something on the grass. The crowd parted slightly when they got close and the four demigods pushed through everyone towards Rachel who was sitting cross-legged on the grass yoga style. Green mist was swirling around everyone's feet like snakes while small puffs escaped her lips. Her eyes glowed bright green and when they landed on Jason, the girl rose to her feet. Piper was afraid that she was going to start shaking him or something like she'd done to her, but Rachel made no move towards him. She just stared at him with her cold, green eyes before speaking.

_"Eight shall journey to search for the one who is lost_

_But eight shall not arrive at any cost_

_You shall find the place that takes to the air_

_And there the hearts of your friends will be full of despair_

_Only one can save you from the traitor and the Giant's revenge_

_After their true weakness has been exploited in the end."_

When she had finished, her knees buckled out from under her and her eyes rolled back into her head before falling onto the grass at their feet. Some of the campers helped her up and moved her out of the circle while others just stared at Jason in shock.

"It looks like we have the prophecy for our next quest," Annabeth announced.

* * *

**And there you go. A clue and a prophecy. What lucky people you are, haha. Anyone got any clues as to what it means? Here's another clue for you to help you along; a line in the prophecy and the clue are linked...but I'm not gonna tell you which line :P**

**Hope you liked it. (And those waiting on Nico - he'll come in soon, but I'm waiting for the right time. Nico is my favorite character though, so he'll have a part to play in this :))**

**R&R? Please? It would be a nice Christmas present and might make me update faster ;););)**

**-Bell**


	5. Fatal flaws

**Hey guys! Sorry for the late update, been busy writing my own novel and have kinda pushed fanfiction to the side. I'll try to be faster next time, ok?**

**Now, I won't talk too much because there were some reviews that I wanted to reply to, and here they are:**

**Pixie97 - I'll see about the chapters in Percy's POV, ok? It is a good idea, and I'll consider putting some in a bit later, but for now I'm going to stick to the pattern that Rick Riordan has used (Jason, Jason, Piper, Piper, Leo, Leo) and see how I go. Thanks for the suggestion.**

**PJfan - Um, I completely respect your opinion on the matter but Dionysus not only gets Percy's name wrong, but he also gets Annabeth's name wrong, calling her 'Annie Bell.' And, come to think of it, I don't think that he really mentions any other campers names at all anyway, so we may never really know :P. Thanks for the review :)**

**OzMonster The FanFic Critic - read the third chapter carefully. Annabeth said that it was /like/ the dog whistle, but it isn't the same. It's a small conch shell that can be used to ask for help. Nothing to do with Mrs. O'Leary. Thanks for reading and reviewing :) I can understand why that would be confusing.**

**Aleria14'sBIGGESTFAN - Thank you soooo much. Your review really made my day! You have no idea. Thanks!**

**And everyone else who's reviewed: Mariam, noname, sarlovesoccer, Double AA, Daddy's-little-twilight-lover, pinkcatheaven, ILoveBooks358, ThomasKnight, Imb111514, Technophobia514, NLA, Katargeo Em, NobodySomebodyAnybody, LinF, poseidon262, The Meddler, SeaweedBrain113097, Joe1029, streeto, Agent Gwen, Auraxi, CAT, Someone, LuckyNumbers, Pink Wolf Princess, Moowashere14, Patrick101, Noname, chai latte, Travis Jameson, Chihiro Cullen, .Jesus, nuthinbutagirl and CoolWater123.**

**Yes, that was a list of _everyone_ that has _ever_ reviewed this fic, ever. I just wanted you to know that I do read and take in reviews, so thanks everyone! hopefully I didn't miss anybody.**

**Now, finally, onto the chapter.**

* * *

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 5_

_Leo_

Leo barely had time to say something really intelligent like "uh…" before Annabeth grabbed Jason by the wrist and started hauling him towards the big house, gesturing at Leo and Piper to follow. He glanced over at the daughter of Aphrodite for a moment and she shrugged beginning to follow Annabeth up the hill.

"So…" Nyssa said slowly, watching them walk away while she wiped grease off her forehead. "Want me to manage the building efforts for a while?"

"That's probably a good idea," he replied, already halfway up the hill. "But if anything goes wrong I know who to blame."

"Yourself, for putting me in charge?" Nyssa asked with a smirk.

"Right."

Leo only caught up with Piper and Annabeth when they were about a meter from the Big House – jeez, that girl could walk fast – and he caught his breath when they arrived at the ping pong table where the head counselors normally had their meetings. They all knew why they were there and didn't bother asking questions.

"Alright," Annabeth said, breathing heavily. "Now that we're alone, we have a lot to talk about."

"Really? I thought we were ordering pizza," Leo joked, watching as Jason examined his letter from Poseidon again. "But seriously, what _is_ there to discuss?"

"How about we start with the obvious," Piper said. "'_Eight shall journey to search for the one who is lost.'_ It looks like only eight of us are going, and we already have four."

"And the one who is lost…" Annabeth trailed off and shared a look with Piper.

"Your missing boyfriend." Leo concluded and everyone seemed to agree. "But the next line sounds deadly; '_But eight shall not arrive at any cost.' _Does that mean that one of us will…"

"Prophecies don't always turn out the way we expect them to," Annabeth said quickly before that last thought could set settle in. "And if you dwell on them too much, they can drive you crazy. What about the next lines?"

"_You shall find the place that takes to the air," _Jason added slowly, his eyes still focussed on the letter. He seemed to be deep in thought. "_And there the hearts of your friends will be full of despair…"_ Suddenly, he shot to his feet, his eyes still glazed over.

"Are you ok, man?" Leo asked, leaning in front of him and waving a hand in front of his face almost comically.

Jason kept staring ahead as if he wasn't there and Leo thought it was kind of creepy. "For my birthday…my father gave me something," he muttered, his brow furrowed in concentration. "It was because something bad happened during the battle…something about the camp…" His eyes suddenly widened and he smiled.

"Either you just saw something really amazing on that blank wall or you've remembered something," Leo said, following his gaze. He seriously looked like he was in love with the wall or something.

"What is it," Annabeth asked, her eyes glinting.

"I just remembered where the camp is."

* * *

As Jason explained everything, the whole room was pushed into silence and when they finally got to the part about where the camp actually was Leo could practically feel the gears in his head turning. It would take a lot of heavy engineering to pull that off…or very difficult magic. Obviously the latter, but he still threw in his questions. It seemed extremely farfetched but it made sense. Although the campers were told to stay away from the bay area, there was now practically no chance that it could ever be found unless by the campers themselves. It was all pretty ingenious, Leo thought.

"All this time…it's been there all along," Annabeth said in awe. "If it wasn't for you we would have never found it."

"Actually," Jason said slowly. "As I said, it wasn't always where it is now. During the Titan war, most of the camp was destroyed. The Titans' followers had no trouble at all finding the camp and, somehow, they got in.

"Somehow? I thought that you said that the camp was heavily guarded," Annabeth said.

"It is," Jason replied. "_Very _well guarded – you really have no idea. But something went wrong that day…we never found out what happened."

Silence passed over them for a few minutes as everyone thought more about this.

"Okay," Piper said eventually. "And what about the last two lines? '_Only one can save you from the traitor and the Titan's revenge. After their true weakness has been exploited in the end.'"_

"Weakness?" Leo asked. "What kind of weakness?"

"Everyone has a weakness, or a fatal flaw…" she told them, looking at everyone as if that would extract all of their weaknesses out of them. Leo took a small step back. He didn't want his weakness - whatever it was - to be exploited to everyone.

"You mean like an Achilles heel?" Piper said, sitting down at the table next to Jason.

Annabeth's face seemed to pale a bit. "Yes. Exactly like that. But even though the prophecy says that we can be saved, the fact that a weakness needs to be exploited is never a good thing. Anything can happen."

"There's something you're not telling us," Jason observed, staring Annabeth down. "What are we missing here?"

Leo watched as Annabeth met his gaze solemnly and then shook her head. "It's nothing that you need to concern yourselves with. Just know that whatever weakness it is, it can't be good."

* * *

For the rest of the day, Leo busied himself with finishing the skeleton of the boat, trying to stop himself from thinking about the prophecy. He'd decided that to distract himself he either had to work on the boat, or say 'do not think about the prophecy' over and over again. For the sake of his sanity he chose to work.

But things were going a lot faster than he expected. He was absolutely amazed at how much faster and easier things were since Tyson started to help. But even though the big guy did exactly what he was told and worked really hard, Leo couldn't help but think that maybe they were doing the exact same thing; trying to distract themselves from the more serious goings on. And it worked, right up until it was time for capture the flag…whatever that was.

As Leo led the Hephaestus campers up the hill towards the dinging pavilion he fell into step with Nyssa.

"Capture the flag?" Leo asked, sensing the excitement buzzing around him.

"You don't know what capture the flag is?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Uh…it's a game right?"

"Wrong. There are two teams – the red team and the blue team – which are divided evenly between all of the cabins. They each get a flag. The aim of capture the flag is to get opposing team's flag."

" So it _is_ a game." Leo stated with a smirk. Nyssa glared at him

"No, it's much more serious than that! The two teams need to fight against each other, so it's good for training, and you need a strategy to actually win so that's good for…well, battle strategy."

"Uh-huh…so it's a _game._"

"You are impossible, Valdez," she said incredulously, shaking her head.

"I know I am."

At first, Leo thought that everything was normal enough at dinner – they tipped a portion of their food into the fire for the Gods, sat at their normal tables and ate a normal camp dinner – but after the plates were cleared away nobody got up to leave. Instead, Leo got to experience a totally different scenario.

Chiron clopped his hoof loudly against the marble floor and everyone turned in their seats. Leo could feel the tension throughout the room and he really started to wonder why they all made such a fuss about a flag. It wasn't that big a deal. Not compared to, say, taking down three Cyclopes singlehandedly or mending a bronze dragon.

"As you all know, there are many rumours going around that capture the flag is back on tonight," Chiron looked around at everyone sternly before his expression softened. "And you'll be pleased to know that all of these rumours are correct."

Everyone burst into a series of cheers and whistles. Chiron hit his hoof against the marble again but no one looked his way.

"QUIET YOU LITTLE BRATS!" Dionysus boomed and everyone became silent again. Leo coughed and he could have sworn that it bounced around the pavilion.

"Um, thank you Mr. D," Chiron said uncertainly, frowning at the God before clearing his throat and turning back to us. "Now, I'm sure that it is clear to everyone that things have been pretty tense over the last month due to many occurrences. And it was because of these occurrences that capture the flag and many other things were cancelled. Well, Mr. D and I decided that we all need a distraction, and believe that this is the best way to do so."

Suddenly a conch horn sounded loudly from somewhere and everyone stood up as the big girl that Leo remembered was Clarisse came in with two other campers carrying a red, silk flag. On it was a bloody spear and a boars head. Everyone, especially the other Ares campers went wild, whistling and jumping like crazy. Then came an unusual sight – well, Leo thought so anyway. Annabeth, daughter of Athena, Tyson, the Cyclops, and Grover, the Satyr, walked in carrying a shiny blue silk flag with a glowing trident and a horse made out of sea foam on the front. Three guesses as to who that belongs to, Leo thought.

Everyone in the pavilion was sent into an uproar when they walked in and Leo noticed Clarisse shooting them a glare. Chiron pounded his hoof for the third time that night and everybody went silent, probably not wanting Mr. D to shout again.

"Since our last winner, Percy Jackson, is unable to lead the blue team tonight, Annabeth has volunteered herself and the Athena cabin to take his place. Any objections?" Silence. "Okay then, let's get started!"

Chiron then began to talk about the rules, repeating them as if he'd said them a hundred times before and then everyone started breaking off into teams with everyone else. Leo smiled, this looked like it was going to be fun afterall.

* * *

**Another filler AND another cliffhanger. Wow, I'm being cruel. I'll try to update asap to make up for it. Expect some action...and some unexpected surprises. Also, they're going to set sail soon. I just need to get a few things out of the way. Also gonna introduce more PERCY and NICO soon. So look out.**

**R&R?**

**-Bell**


	6. Capture the Flag with a twist

**Alright everyone! Here's a nice long chapter for you with a little bit of drama in it. Sorry it took so long, but this one was hard to write; mainly because you need to think battle strategy ;)**

**PLEASE READ THIS PART:**

**Anyway, things from your POV are probably starting to get a bit boring, right? Well, after this chapter is where I'm HOPING (almost certain) that Nico and or Thalia will come in. Or the chapter after. Either way, it's soon. Then, once they're there we'll do a few time skips so we can actually get to when they set sail, ok? I'll try to get them out of camp as quikly as possible so we can get to Percy. Sound good to you? Give me your opinion.**

**Alrigh, it's about time for a capture the flag. Hope you like it.**

* * *

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 6_

_Leo_

After everyone had dressed themselves in full battle armour, the pavilion was sent into chaos. Campers jumped up from their seats and hurried around frantically to get on the teams that they wanted. Others were crowded in big circles and discussing tactics.

At first, Leo just blinked in confusion as everyone seemed to lose their minds, but then he remembered that he was the head of the Hephaestus cabin. He also realised that his cabin mates were looking at him anxiously, waiting to see what he was going to do next.

So, he shot a quick desperate glance at Jason, trying to give him the most pleading look possible, and eventually he gave him a barely perceptible nod.

"Okay everyone, follow me if you want to live," he said with a smile but this seemed to make them more nervous. "Oh, lighten up," he told them as he led the way over to Jason. "You make it seem like this whole thing is a matter of life and death. Jeez!"

Jason met them all halfway.

"I'll go ahead and guess that we're not even gonna need to trade anything to get him on our team are we?" Nyssa said with relief and Leo just felt confused. He ignored it and decided to move on.

"Alright Jason, time for the million dollar question. Annabeth or Clarisse?" Leo asked, his lips forming a smirk. Jason crossed his arms in response.

"Okay, it's a no-brainer right? Clarisse."

"Yeah, definitely. Actually, _you _can be on Clarisse's side and I can explain to Annabeth why you decided to abandon her. I'm cool with this," he told him as he waved over at Annabeth who began to push past people with her siblings and a few choice cabins in tow, including the Aphrodite cabin. Leo actually took a step back. She looked really dangerous dressed in her celestial bronze armour and her grey eyes blazing. That girl was on a mission, and he was _really_ glad that he wasn't against her.

"So who's on our team?" Jason asked when the group were close enough.

"It's you, the Athena cabin, obviously, the Aphrodite cabin, the Heph– " she looked at Leo for confirmation and he nodded quickly. Not willing to make a joke under the intensity of her gaze. "–the Hephaestus cabin and the Apollo cabin. I owe them for ruining their chariot."

"That's it?" Leo choked out. "Against…._everyone else?"_ Sure, they had enough people on their team, but there were a _lot _of other cabins. Out of the corner of his eye, Leo could see them all crowding around Clarisse, shouting together about how they would crush the blue team.

"Are you saying that you don't have faith in me?" Annabeth asked, her eyes like storm clouds.

"Whoa, I never said that," Leo backtracked, his hands shooting up in defence. "I'm just saying that, for a game, everyone is taking this _way _too seriously–"

"It's not a game!" The whole Hephaestus cabin chorused and Leo shook his head. "WAY too seriously. And…since they are, there's no chance that we could like, die right?"

Annabeth ignored the question.

"We could die during this!" He exclaimed in disbelief and Annabeth sighed.

"Weren't you listening? Maiming or killing isn't allowed…although it does happen. Just be quiet and listen up or you really _will _die."

Leo understood that she didn't mean that he'd die during the game. Annabeth didn't look like the type of person that you wanted on the opposing team – for ANYTHING.

"Alright, so here's the plan…"

* * *

Leo placed some Hephaestus campers along the creek line on border patrol, just like Annabeth asked. She'd explained to Leo that their job was to stop the other team from getting across at any cost. They all looked pretty determined.

Also on border patrol were most the Apollo cabin and half of the Athena and Aphrodite campers. He knew that the rest of them would be there soon enough if everything went as planned.

Once that was set up, Leo took off towards their flag which was about a hundred meters from the creek. He wondered why Annabeth had made such a risky decision to put it so close, but let it slide deciding that she probably knew what she was doing. Hopefully.

As soon as the flag came into view, Jason appeared and Leo nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Jeez, man, you and Annabeth look _scary _in battle armour! I was about to throw…" he took a roll of toilet paper out of his toolbelt. "Uh…"

"You were going to tipi me?" Jason asked, obviously holding back laughter. "You're nervous, aren't you?"

"No way!" Leo exclaimed shoving the toilet paper roughly back inside and digging out a hammer…a pink one.

"Yes, you are," Jason retorted. But apparently it's 'just a game' so I don't see why you're nervous."

"Oh ha-ha, and I thought I was the funny one," he replied, sorting through the tool belt in annoyance, but he was interrupted by the conch horn and he decided to stick with the pink hammer. Oh man, it had flowers along the handle! He shook his head quickly and decided that it didn't matter.

The forest was silent for only a few seconds longer before the sounds of shouts and swords clashing broke it. For about ten minutes, he and Jason stood there, weapons at the ready but no one came through.

"Do you think they're doing ok?" Jason asked, trying to see past the thick trees. He absentmindedly twisted his sword in his hand.

Leo opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by Drew bursting through the bushes making both the boys raise their weapons. Leo and Jason dropped their hands to their sides when they saw who it was.

"Guys, we need you to come help," she told them quickly, looking over her shoulder.

"But we're supposed to stay here. Annabeth's orders," Jason retorted, his eyes narrowing. Piper had told them all about Drew.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm here because Annabeth said that she needed more defence near the river! Never mind the flag. If the red team gets past the creek it will be too late! Come. Now!"

At the time, this seemed to make perfect sense to Leo so he followed her easily, Jason in tow.

The three ran quickly through the trees until they reached the river. When they got there, a full scale battle was going on. Campers were shouting, slashing, dodging and shoving, trying to either defend their side of the river (the blue team) or trying to force their way across it (the red team). No one seemed to be getting anywhere.

"What are you doing?" Leo heard Annabeth shout at them over the ruckus. Uh-oh.

"Don't listen to her," Drew commanded, narrowly missing being hit by sword as it went spiralling through the air. Leo and Jason stood where they were. Why was Annabeth so keen on keeping the stupid flag guarded anyway? They needed more defence here so they could stop them from getting across the river. Drew was right.

"Look!" Jason murmured, pointing at something behind the battle and Leo could just make out the shape of a red flag being carried quickly through the trees. At first glance it appeared as if no one was carrying it, but Leo knew that it was Piper wearing Annabeth's hat of invisibility. The plan was going well.

"Quick!" Drew said, grabbing Jason's arm. "We need to get to the other side. Come on." Leo followed them through a small gap in the raging battle around them and they got to the other side. By now, Leo had absolutely no idea what was going on in all this craziness. He had a feeling that Jason was the same way.

At that moment, still invisible, Piper burst through the trees with the flag, only to trip on something and fall face first onto the ground. The cap fell off of her head and the flag fell to the floor. There was only a few meters left but she couldn't get up – she was caught in a net.

"HEY!" Clarisse suddenly boomed, having noticed Piper and the flag on the floor in a heap. "Come on! Now's our chance!" And with one last effort, a few members of the red team managed to push past the blue team and run all the way across the river. Once across, it was almost too easy to get through the trees…towards the _unguarded_ flag.

Leo watched as Jason's face twisted in concentration and a lightnight bolt headed straight towards the fleeing members on the red team. It hit the ground loudly in front of them, singing their eyebrows and stunning them for a moment, but they kept running until they dissapeared from sight.

The battle raged on and Annabeth quickly sent some of her team after the few red team members that had made it across while Jason and Leo dropped to their knees in a feeble attempt to remove the netting from Piper so they could get the flag out.

"I can't cut it!" Jason exclaimed in amazement as he tried to saw at the netting. It wasn't working.

"Well figure something out!" Piper shouted, still struggling inside like a wounded animal. "And what are you _doing _here anyway? You're meant to be guarding the flag!"

"Annabeth said –" but Leo was cut off – again – by the sudden uproar from his side of the river. Slowly, he and Jason looked over their shoulders to see Clarisse holding up their flag in triumph. Leo watched in astonishment at the blue faded to red and the picture of the horse and trident faded to a boars head and a spear. Jason sighed.

"Nice going genius," Drew called over all the cheering. She made her way out of a group of Aphrodite campers and walked over to them. Leo wondered where she had gone in the first place…why hadn't she tried to help? Amazingly, the noise seemed to die down. "If it wasn't for you then we might have won!"

Piper's eyes seemed to sparkle in anger but before she could think of what to say Jason came to the rescue.

"Hey, it wasn't her fault," he defended, finally able to get the net off of her and help her to her feet. Everyone seemed to be listening carefully instead of celebrating. It was really odd.

"Oh, you're probably right," Drew said thoughtfully, her eyes flicking over to her new target; Annabeth. "This is your fault. I don't see why you get to lead when it's _your _fault that Percy Jackson is missing in the first place."

Annabeth's eyes widened a fraction of an inch in what Leo thought was surprise, embarrassment or anger. Everyone whispered nervously around them.

"What are you talking about, Drew?" Jason asked and Piper tried to pull him back as if silently pleading to him not to talk.

"Oh, well Piper told me about how Annabeth had insulted Hera so much that she decided to take her revenge by taking Percy away and causing us all of this trouble. Am I right?" she asked Annabeth, but she was too busy looking at Piper with disbelief.

"But that couldn't have been Annabeth's fault!" Leo suddenly broke in, surprising himself. He swallowed hard. "This whole mess has to do with Hera wanting to bring the camps together! Tell them, Annabeth."

Annabeth opened her mouth but she was too stunned to speak. This was the most vulnerable that Leo had ever seen her.

"You're right, Valdez," Drew broke in again. "But that's not the entire reason, is it? Go on, Annabeth. Tell us why Percy is missing why don't you? Oh, wait, you don't want to because you're to blame. According to Piper anyway."

Everyone was locked in a stunned silence, unable to move from their spots. Even Clarisse, who was still buzzing with excitement over beating the blue team, was quiet, clutching her flag as if someone might take it.

"I can't believe you would do this," Annabeth told Piper with hostility, ripping her helmet off and throwing it to the floor along with the rest of her armour.

"But I didn't!" She replied in desperation. Annabeth ignored her, turning and storming off into the forest.

Leo patted Piper's shoulder and gave her a wink before getting into action. Looks like it was up to him to get everyone back to reality.

"Alright, break it up! The red team won, nothing more to see now!" Leo managed to shout, waving his arms. "All Hephaestus campers meet at bunker nine now!" And with that, he turned and sprinted towards the bunker, successfully breaking up the awkward moment and secretly hoping that Piper would be ok.

Who was he kidding? She was with Jason. He was bound to be able to help her.

**

* * *

**

Yeah...don't like drew much. I'm sure you all picked up on that though ;) But it looks like she got her revenge...

**Look out for some JasonxPiper in the next chapter...and hopefully Nico!**

**R&R?**

**-Bell**


	7. Hellhound horror

**Another update! Yay! Not much to say about anything really...other than there's a huge surprise- okay, two surprises that I thought I'd add. Hope you like it :)**

* * *

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 7_

_Jason_

As soon as Leo managed to break the silence that was left by Drew's words, Jason quickly shook himself out of the trance he was in and grabbed Piper by the wrist. He gently pulled her away and led her out of the forest, not daring to look back until he was sure that they were alone. He then managed to spot a rock and the two demigods sat down together. Silence followed while Piper stared stoically at the ground.

"What was Drew on about back there?" Jason asked, wanting to cut to the heart of the matter quickly even if Piper didn't like him doing so.

She sighed and wiped her eyes before telling him about everything. About how she and Annabeth had talked about Hera's possible ulterior motives which Piper had dismissed and how she knew that Annabeth didn't want her feelings about Percy's disappearance to be shared.

"But I didn't tell anyone except you just now!" She exclaimed with the fiery tone that she used when she was angry. "You believe me, right?"

"Of course." Piper wasn't the type to go around parading secrets – especially about her friends. "But the question is how _did_ Drew know?"

Piper seemed to think about this for a moment before shaking her head. "I don't know. But that doesn't matter. What matters is she does know and now we've really upset Annabeth and– "

"Annabeth isn't the type of person you want to be in an argument with," Jason finished, his fingers tugging at the hem of his shirt in thought. "But don't worry about it. Just try to talk it out with her. I'm sure that she'll figure out sooner or later that it wasn't your fault. She'll come around."

"You better be right," she replied with a sigh dropping her head in her hands.

Jason paused for a moment, having a small mental battle with himself before draping his arm around her shoulders and rubbing her arm. "I am. What? You don't have faith in me? Should I be offended?"

Piper laughed slightly and sat up, looking at him with red eyes. "Yes, yes you should."

"Well I'm not."

"Good."

"Wait a minute," she said, her lips forming into a bigger smile. "How in the name of Zeus did you make me feel better so quickly?"

Jason shrugged. "Because I'm the 'chosen one…' or whatever. And don't use my father's name like that; it could be the last thing you ever do."

There was silence as the two of them found themselves looking up at the sky before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Looks like I'm still here," Piper said, and Jason was happy to see her smiling again.

"Damn…I mean good," he replied jokingly and she nudged him with her shoulder.

"Yes, good. And don't you forget it."

The two smiled at each other and Jason remembered that he still had his arm around her shoulders. He let it casually fall and pretended not to see the tiniest bit of disappointment in Pipers expression. The fact was that he still wasn't sure about what he felt about Piper…or Reyna. Not that he could actually remember perfectly who she was. He just felt something – something weird – when he thought of her and until he could sort out these feelings and memories he didn't want to lead Piper on.

Piper opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a figure coming eerily out of the darkness towards them. The two half-blood's stiffened and drew their weapons, standing shoulder to shoulder. Whatever it was, it didn't come out of the gloom.

"Whoever – or whatever – you are, show yourself," Jason said boldly, not liking all the darkness around them.

Suddenly, a boy of about 13 appeared from the shadows, walking slowly in their direction. He had dark eyes that seemed to analyse them with interest, long mattered hair and olive skin. He wore a black t-shirt with a skull on it – which made him blend into the shadows extremely well – with matching black jeans, ripped in many places. Jason also noticed the silver skull ring on his finger and, oh yeah, the huge freaking sword hanging at his side that shone – you guessed it –_ black _in the moonlight. Honestly, this kid looked like he'd just stepped out of a horror film and was about to tell them not to look in the closet. But Jason kept that to himself.

"So you must be Jason, right?" The kid asked, eyeing him suspiciously while walking slowly in a circle around them as if they were his prey.

"Who wants to know?" He replied, still holding his sword high. He didn't trust him at all.

In response to Jason's question, the boy shrugged, stopping in front of them. He didn't touch his sword, but that didn't mean that he wasn't looking for a fight.

"Who's she?" He said finally, gesturing at Piper. "Your girlfriend?"

"No." Both Jason and Piper said together in even tones.

"Sure you aren't," he said shaking his head. "I feel like I'm dealing with Annabeth and Percy all over again."

"So you're a Demigod?" Piper asked, ignoring the meaning of the comment – Jason could feel his cheeks darkening – and lowered her dagger slightly. "Were you out looking for Percy?"

"Now that I know what _really _happened to him, I wouldn't call it 'looking.' It was more like 'aimlessly wandering.'"

Jason relaxed his arm and Piper did the same. Jason didn't know what it was exactly, but there was something about him that made him believe the boy. He didn't look like he wanted to attack.

But as soon as the giant, black dog leaped out of the darkness behind the kid, he could almost _feel _the level of trust drop again and the weapons went back up defensively.

The huge animal met Jason's eyes and stared at him with an expression that he couldn't read as it's paws padded the ground. He and Piper didn't move a muscle until, eventually, it seemed to get bored with them and it's eyes locked onto the dark boy. Its tail then started to wag happily and it stuck its bottom up in the air playfully. The boy turned around and sighed.

"I thought I told you to stay out of sight, girl."

She tilted her head slightly before bounding over and, as if disregarding his authority further, knocked him to the ground and started covering him in dog drool. Jason heard Piper stiffle laugher.

"Mrs. O'Leary! Heel!" He shouted and she pulled herself off him, looking over hopefully at Jason and Piper, probably wanting to play.

"Is that your dog?" Jason asked in amazement and he dropped his arm to the side for the second time. It didn't seem like she wanted to attack them either.

"Not a dog really," the boy said, getting to his feet and attempting to wipe drool off his clothes. "Hellhound. And no, it's not. She was helping me look. I actually think that Chiron just wanted her out of the way for a while. After Percy went missing she was really distraught and no one seemed to have time for her."

Halfway through his speech Piper had made her way over bravely and started scratching the dog- uh, _hellhound _behind the ear. She panted happily while she did so.

Deciding that it was okay to let his guard down, Jason sheathed his sword. "So Percy Jackson; son of Neptune, er, Poseidon, hero, leader, and now a hellhound owner? He's really starting to sound very unreal now."

This managed to get a laugh out of the boy. "You got that right." But his expression went dark again and he cursed in ancient Greek. "Wait, I'm not supposed to like you! I mean, _you're_ the reason that I've been wandering around like a lost sheep looking for someone I could never find!" Jason took a guess and decided that he'd been talking to Annabeth and knew where his camp was.

"Look, man, I'm sorry but I only got my memories back really recently–"

"Not to mention that it took us all a while to figure out what was really going on," Piper interrupted. "We didn't know what Hera was up to or why Percy and Jason were taken."

"So I've heard," he muttered.

"Okay, so now that we've got the facts straight, _who are you?"_ Jason asked.

The boy blinked and looked down at his clothes before meeting Jason's eyes again. "You tell me."

"You are a demigod, right?" Piper asked first, looking at him curiously.

"Duh!" He exclaimed and Jason studied him carefully for a moment and almost hit himself when he looked again at his ring and his t-shirt.

"Pluto!" He exclaimed and Piper's eyes lit up in recognition, coming back over to join the boys with Mrs. O'Leary on her tail. "You're a son of Hades, right?"

"Yup. I'm Nico Diangelo."

But just as Jason was about to shake his hand a deep growl came from inside the forest, startling them.

"I don't suppose you brought another _good _hellhound, right?" Piper asked, looking towards the forest wearily.

Nico was about to answer when _two_ huge hellhounds appeared from the trees, fangs beared and heads lowered.

"Or maybe two?" Jason suggested but Nico shook his head.

Then, as if things couldn't get any worse, another hellhound appeared out of the shadows – but this wasn't like the other ones. No normal hellhound would be the size of a house and have three heads.

"Cerberus," Nico muttered darkly as he stared up at the beast.

This couldn't be good.

* * *

**YAY NICO! I finally got him into the story. But this leaves the question; how did the hellhounds get through the barriers? DUN DUN DUUUNNNN? More and more plot twists coming your way guys. And I'm sorry to say that I don't think Thalia will be showing up until they set sail...so sorry guys :( But at least you have Nico :)**

**R&R? Please?**

**-Bell**


	8. Jason dreams of a friend

**Here's an extralong chapter for you! Sorry if it seems to be a bit of a gap in the middle, but you'll see why I've done this in the next chapter. This also gives you a bit of an update on how Percy's going...not to mention some slight JasonxPiper :)**

**However, there is a VERY IMPORTANT NOTE that I need to tell you about. I did my research and did my best to figure out what the Roman term for Dracanae would be...and couldn't find anything ;(**

**Does anyone, anyone at all, know? If you can find out that would reeaaalllyyyy help. Sorry I couldn't be more accurate...but yeah, I tried.**

**Now without further ado...here's the next chapter**

* * *

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 8_

_Jason_

"Don't move," Nico barely murmured, holding out his arms and stepping defensively in front of Jason and Piper. "And put your swords on the ground, otherwise they'll have something to pick their teeth with when they're done with you!"

Jason and Piper didn't argue – the look of concentration on the 13 year olds face made sure of that – and they let their weapons fall from their hands.

"Now, you three need to back off," Nico said in a stern tone that people use to train animals. But unfortunately three huge hellhounds ignored him and stood their ground, growling angrily and clawing at the dirt.

"Back. Off." Nico repeated, stepping forward slowly, holding up his hands and motioning them to get back. At this, the three dogs stopped growling and studied him carefully with recognition, but as soon as their eyes caught on Jason again, more growls erupted in their throats. In response, Mrs. O'Leary snarled and leaped in front of Jason and Piper protectively.

"No, girl," Nico said, his eyes still locked on the other hellhounds. "I need you to go find Chiron. Get help. Go!"

Mrs. O'Leary looked at all of them sadly as if she wasn't sure whether to leave them or not and then took off into the night, leaving the three currently weapon-less demigods to fend off three hellhounds...including Cerberus himself.

The hellhounds saw this as their chance to start approaching them and Jason could smell their breath in the air and feel it on his face.

"Back off!" Nico was shouting now. Moving forward with authority and keeping his head high against the three monsters. Jason felt Piper inch over to stand closer to him. "I am a son of Hades. You know who I am. Get out of here!"

The dogs hesitated as Nico stared them down and Jason grabbed Pipers arm, carefully taking two cautious steps back until their backs were against their rock, keeping his eyes on the dark animals.

"Leave!" Nico said again, his voice loud and stern but the dogs had had enough. All it took was one of Cerberus's heads to lose interest in Nico and take a snap at them to set off a whole chain reaction. The two smaller hellhounds lunged at Jason and he and Piper were forced to roll across the ground and reach desperately for their weapons. But before either of them could get to them, Jason felt Piper torn away from his side, followed by her scream.

"Piper!" He called, springing to his feet. One of the hellhounds had managed to snag her leg between its teeth and was dragging her towards the forest. Thinking quickly, he picked up his Gladius and began running towards her, calling her name. He was only about a meter away from her screaming form when the other hellhound jumped in front of him, snapping its jaws wildly. Jason swung his sword forcefully, only just missing the beast by inches. As Jason stumbled from the momentum the hellhound saw its chance and swiped a meaty paw through the night air, knocking him to the ground. Head spinning, Jason slashed blindly and was rewarded with a howl of pain. Sitting up, he sighed in annoyance when he realised that his attack wasn't enough to disintegrate the brute. But that wasn't the worst of Jason's problems. Piper's scream was getting fainter and fainter and if he didn't get to her soon…

"Alright, that's it!" Jason cried, jumping up and lunging towards it, finally managing to stab it through the chest, making it crumble into ashes and blown away with the wind.

Breathing hard, Jason looked over to see Nico, battling it out with Cerberus for control. He was shouting orders at the huge dog, but whenever he seemed to be getting through to the beast, it would shake its heads and go back to snarling at him. The funny thing was that Nico acted like it was normal to be able to control a three headed dog from the underworld like it was his pet. But if this was the case, Cerberus didn't seem to want to cooperate today. Something wasn't right.

A loud scream echoed through the trees and Jason shook himself awake. Deciding that Nico could look after himself, Jason took off into the trees.

"Piper!" He called desperately, his heart pounding. "Piper, talk to me! Where are you?"

"Jason!" He heard her cry and he hurried towards the direction of her voice, tripping on roots and getting scratched in the face for his trouble.

By the time he got to the creek, her screaming had become louder and he could hear rustling in the nearby shrubbery. He was close. In a final effort, he sprinted through the water, dashed between some trees and managed to pick out the huge figure in the darkness, dragging a smaller shape which he knew to be Piper.

"Piper!" He called and rushed over, managing to end the hellhounds life with one quick slash of his sword. Ash fell like rain all around them as he bent down and took her hand. He could see the blood soaking her jeans and flowing slowly onto the forest floor. "Are you alright?"

She swallowed hard but he couldn't make out her expression in the blackness. "Does it look like I'm alright?" She asked and Jason almost sighed in relief.

"No, but I had to ask," he replied, slipping his armour off his torso followed by his shirt. He felt shivers run down his spine from the cold but he ignored them and ripped his shirt to pieces, wrapping it firmly around her leg. "It's going to be alright, Mrs. O'Leary went to get Chiron, remember?"

"But he won't be able to find us…and I don't think I can move."

Jason glanced around, his eyes darting around the shadows of the trees. Nothing. He looked up at the sky for a moment, and then got an idea. Not willing to take a risk, he wiped the blood on his jeans and rose shakily to his feet, taking a few steps away from her.

"Don't leave," she pleaded and he shook his head.

"I'm not going anywhere." Clenching his jaw in concentration, he built up as much power as he dared. When he felt his skin begin to tingle he released a lightning bolt into the sky. Amazingly, this left a small trail of smoke that was visible against the dark blue that surrounded them.

Deciding that this was good enough, he sat back down and took her hand once more, holding it tight.

"How did they get across the border?" Piper asked quietly, sounding extremely exhausted.

"I don't know. And I don't know why they didn't listen to Nico either. One minute, they'd back down and the next they were snapping at us again...then he lost all control."

"Where is Nico?" Piper asked suddenly, trying to sit up but Jason pushed her back down again.

"He was holding back Cerberus. He didn't look like he wanted to hurt him though," Jason said.

"Who didn't want to hurt who?"

"Neither of them wanted to hurt each other," Jason said with a slight chuckle. "They weren't after Nico; I think they were after me."

Amazingly, Piper didn't argue this theory. She probably knew that he was right. "But why?"

For this, Jason had no answer and he shook his head.

There was silence between the two for a while as they listened to the cool breeze tug at the leaves around them and the sounds of animals echoing through the trees. But then Piper's breathing started to become slower and Jason lifted her head onto his lap.

"No, don't go to sleep, Piper. Stay with me," Jason said, stroking the hair back from her face.

"I am," she said with a slur that made Jason not believe her. "And I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Now?" Jason asked in disbelief.

"Now seems as good as any other time. We were interrupted before," she said slowly, her eyelids fluttering slightly in an attempt to stay awake. Jason figured that it was best to keep her talking.

"Alright, what do you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to let you know that you don't need to blame yourself for not remembering things," she told him, her voice fading. "You need to give yourself time."

"But we don't _have _time," Jason argued, wondering where she was getting all of this from. "Everything would be so much easier if I could just remember."

Piper laughed slightly. "Since when is anything easy for us? I mean, look at me right now as an example!" she paused and then sighed. "Look, you can't rely too heavily on yourself. We're here to help you whenever you need it…" by now she was barely speaking and Jason knew that he was losing her.

"Piper! Wake up!" he called, patting her cheek.

"I am!" she muttered and she forced her eyes open again. Jason sighed in relief.

"Just hold on, Chiron–"

As if on cue, the sound of hoofs hammering the floor became clear and before they knew it, Chiron was standing above them.

"What happened?"

* * *

Jason dreamed that he was in one of the cabins back at the Roman camp. Looking around, he had a strong sense that he'd been there before. There were four bunks – one in each corner - and clothes were strewn everywhere, most of them dark in colour. The walls were black and even though there were flickering lights hanging from the ceiling, the blinds were drawn and everything inside seemed to be shrouded in darkness.

Stepping cautiously across the wooden floor, Jason looked around, trying to figure out why he was there, but as far as he could tell there wasn't anything of interest in the room. Shaking his head, he turned to see if he could leave when two figures entered through the door, practically blinding him when the afternoon light shone harshly across his face. One of the boys Jason recognised as Percy Jackson and he looked about the same as when he last saw him aside from the dark misshapen rings that had formed under his eyes. From nightmares maybe? Jason wouldn't be surprised.

The other boy seemed _extremely _familiar with his dark hair, eyes and pale skin. He wore a purple shirt – exactly like Jason's – and it was really loose fitting on his gangly structure. But even though he didn't look like much, Jason knew him to be really strong and clever when he needed to be. They were also good friends.

"Dakota," he murmured, suddenly longing to be back at camp. Seeing Dakota again had stunned him…brought back memories that he didn't know he had. He remembered the time the two of them had been cornered by six Dracanae. Jason was injured from a previous attack that he couldn't remember (figures...) and Dakota had stepped in front of him, taking the worst of it. Along with most of the other campers, Jason had always had trouble trusting Dakota, but the two of them had fought side by side that day, and they'd been close friends ever since.

Jason shook himself away from the memory and focused as the two boys crossed the room.

"I'm telling you I don't know!" Percy exclaimed, throwing a pen across the room in frustration and sitting down on a bunk.

"Are you sure?" Dakota asked somewhat angrily, cornering him. "Because I think that you do. And you know why? Because Jason seems to vanish off the face of the Earth and then _you _show up with supposedly no idea of who you are. Do you think that I'm supposed to believe that this is just a coincidence?"

Percy dropped his head into his hands and massaged his temples. "No, I don't. But believe me when I say that I don't know who Jason is! I don't even know who _I _am."

Dakota glared down at him for a moment before his expression softened and he sighed. He pried up a loose floorboard with his fingers and started rummaging through the contents. "Alright, I believe you, ok? But this is just crazy."

"Tell me about it," Percy muttered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the pen that he'd thrown across the room a moment ago. Annabeth had told Jason all about that pen and how it was able to reappear in his pocket after a certain amount of time. Percy examined it carefully, uncapping it and watching as it extended into a sword. Jason realised that it was a lot like the one that he used to have.

Dakota grunted as he pulled out two cokes and handed one to Percy before taking a seat next to him on the bunk and taking a sip.

"How did you get this in here?" Percy asked in disbelief as he capped his pen/sword again and looked between Dakota and the coke.

"I have my ways," he said with a smirk. "It's hard to get it in, but not impossible."

Percy just stared at him with a cynical look.

"Don't look at me like that," Dakota said, laughing. "It's just coke! Go ahead and drink it, it's not poison."

Percy seemed to think it over before popping the lid open and taking a long drink. He'd tipped about half the can down his throat before he stopped to take a breath.

"It…tastes a bit funny," he muttered, running his tongue along his teeth.

Dakota took another sip of his drink and frowned in disgust. "So does mine. It's probably from being kept under there for so long. I'll try to find a better hiding place next time. Anyway, Percy…"

"What?"

"Just be careful," Dakota muttered, taking another drink.

In response, Percy sighed and finished off the can, not seeming to mind the taste anymore. "I know. I never did thank you for covering me when I talked to Lupa."

Jason's eyes shot up. He was right. Someone _was_ helping him on the inside. Dakota. His friend – the last person he ever expected would help anyone – was telling Percy how to survive the camp.

Dakota grinned mischievously and nodded. "Anytime my friend. But, dude, what is with all of that Greek stuff? Just _talking _about it around here can get you into trouble, you know."

"Yes, Dakota, I know. You've told me. And, as for the Greek stuff, I'm getting pretty tired of saying this, but I don't know."

Jason froze, remembering that he'd said the exact same thing when he'd first shown up at Camp Half-blood. He was sick of not knowing things and having questions asked about who he was when he didn't have answers. That was how Percy was probably feeling.

"The Greek names…they seem to be all I know," Percy continued, his face contorted with concentration. "I barely knew the names of the Roman Gods when I showed up."

"Well, if I were you I'd forget all about that right now, unless you want to end up becoming more trouble than you're worth."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Percy said angrily, his eyes narrowing but Dakota raised his eyebrows and shook his head quickly. That was another thing Jason remembered about Dakota; he had a really twisted sense of humour that not many people seemed to understand.

"Dude, I was kidding," he said throwing his coke can into the trash with perfect aim. "C'mon, we're going to miss dinner…and if we do that we're going to be on kitchen duty for a month."

As Dakota left the room, Jason stepped out of the way and watched as Percy stood and frowned, wobbling on his feet before kneeling down on the floor, holding his head in his hands. He cried out in pain and Jason couldn't help but rush over and kneel beside him. But just as Percy screamed in agony, Jason felt himself being ripped away and he plunged into darkness.

* * *

**There. More info on Percy :) AND DAKOTA! WOOT! Now you know who's been helping Percy from the inside.**

**R&R?**

**And please, I'm asking again because I'm genuinly curious, anyone know what Dracanae is in Latin?**

**-Bell**


	9. Screw up's make funny stories

****

Sorry I haven't updated in so long guys, but unfortunately you're gonna have to understand that I've started school up again - junior year - and it's really hectic. I barely have time to write/play guitar or do anything fun :( It really sucks...and I really am sorry about it, but it can't be helped.

**However, it seems that I have some time on fridays so I think that, if I remember and I don't have the dreaded writers block, I should be able to update then. But we'll see. Just know that I'm trying :(**

**Anyway, this one's kind of a filler, but I thought that Grover deserved some time...and I wanted to talk about Percy :) **

**Enjoy :D**

* * *

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 9_

_Piper_

Piper opened her eyes groggily and looked around the room in alarm, trying to figure out where she was. From a quick inspection she could tell that it was a small space and was blocked off to the rest of the room by a curtain. She was also the only person in there- wait, no she wasn't. Slowly, her brain finally registered that someone else was here, holding her hand. Looking over to her left she could see Jason, his head tilted back and his mouth hanging open. His brow was furrowed and he made some strange sounds occasionally, suggesting that he was probably having another nightmare. For a moment, Piper thought about waking him up, but then decided against it when she realised what time it was; 2am. Not to mention that the other reason she could think of for waking him up was a selfish one, so instead she sighed and gave his hand a gentle squeeze as she relaxed back against the pillows. Her eyes stayed trained on him however, not willing to sleep. Why was she here anyway? What happened? And why did her leg hurt like Hades? Hades…Nico…Hellhounds…Jason coming to save her…her saying something to him that was probably stupid...but she couldn't remember now due to the loss of blood. But had that been a dream? The aching pain that had suddenly kicked up in her leg suggested that it wasn't. But what if it was? What if last night hadn't happened? What if the whole fight with Annabeth and Drew didn't happen and she didn't look like a complete traitor? That meant that later today she and Annabeth would be talking about the boat schematics with Leo and groaning at his jokes. None of the campers would look at her as if she had three heads and she wouldn't have said any of those stupid things to Jason.

Yeah. Right. That was about as likely as her dad appearing out of nowhere and telling her that they were going away on vacation with no interruptions, or the giants and Gaea saying "Seeya, we're going home!" or Drew giving up on her revenge or…Jason kissing her for real.

Things seemed to be so much happier in dreams – less tiresome.

Piper slowly let go of Jason's hand and pulled the blankets up to her chin. Things really weren't going right for her were they?

And, at that moment, as if the Gods wanted to answer that question, hooves clopped across the floor behind the curtain and the fabric rustled. Piper swallowed and looked around for Katroptris but it was nowhere in sight.

She needn't have worried though. Instead of a monster, a head peeked through the curtain and looked towards her. He was really familiar with his brown curly hair with horns poking through it. What was his name again?

"So you're awake?"

"Um, yeah," Piper said thoughtfully, trying to remember his name. No luck. They'd been introduced briefly but she was so disorientated right now that she might have had better luck remembering the names of every monster known to Greek Mythology. "You're, uh, Percy's friend, right?"

The satyr gave a nervous laugh, although it came out as more of a bleat. He stepped in front of the curtain and took a seat on the other side of the bed, chewing at…was that a can?

"Percy's friend has a name you know!" he replied, finishing his can and then beginning to chew on another one. "Grover."

That was it. "I'm sorry," she said, feeling kind of guilty. "But you ran off pretty quickly after we were introduced."

Grover shrugged, avoiding her gaze as he continued to bite at the can continuously and Piper stared at the ceiling.

Silence. Piper really didn't like it.

"What are you doing here anyway?" She asked.

"Chiron told me to stay here while you slept. He asked Annabeth but she was busy discussing the latest events with Nico."

Piper swallowed hard and decided to drop that conversation. But after thinking for a few minutes she found that she was really lost for words with Grover – they really didn't have much in common. Maybe she could start on a topic that he wouldn't mind talking about...

"How did you meet Percy?" _Okay, Piper, where in the name of the Gods did that question come from?_ She asked herself. It was so ridiculous!

The Satyr's head shot up and stared at her with big, sad eyes. "I was his protector," he mumbled. "Managed to get him to camp safely even though he was a child of the big three. Not that he needed my help near the end..."

_Nice topic you have there, Piper, _she scolded herself.

"Sorry, I didn't know where that-"

"It's alright," he replied, leaning back in his chair. "Everyone's really tired and disagreeable since the news. I get it."

"I don't think so," Piper said with a frown. "I think everyone seems to have an obsession with either building the ship or asking Jason, Leo and I for information about the camp."

Grover laughed and seemed to relax a bit. "Are you kidding me? Aside from the when war was going on, this is the most on edge the campers have ever been. Nico's a great example. I mean, sure, the kid has always been dark and really creepy but I've never seen him so annoyed…" he paused for a moment, as if deciding what to say next and then added quietly, "and Annabeth is wound tighter than a rubber band. I'm surprised she hasn't snapped yet."

Piper sighed, feeling the guilt press down on her from all sides. "That's partly my fault. Something happened during capture the flag and I really hurt her…"

Grover nodded knowingly. "Don't worry, you're not the only one that's been on her bad side. We've all been there, even…" he trailed off and sighed, his eyes becoming sad again. "…even Percy."

Although the mention of his missing friend brought down his spirits again, Piper found herself smiling. "What'd he do?"

The smile found its way back onto Grover's face again. "It's a looong story, but let's just say that involved Percy, Rachel, Annabeth and a couple of _empousai _and leave it at that," he said. "But anyway, about what happened with Annabeth - you need to tell me what went down."

Piper's smile melted off her face. "I'd rather not talk about it. I really messed up."

"That's what everyone's been saying," Grover blurted out before biting his lip. Piper felt like sinking down under the covers and pretending not to exist. "Sorry!" Grover suddenly said, probably after seeing the look on her face. "What I meant to say is 'that's what it looks like.' But my girlfriend and I don't think that's true."

"Well you're wrong," Piper said quietly, looking down. "Everything that happened last night is my fault."

"No, Piper, it isn't," he said sternly as if he knew something she didn't. Even so, she still shook her head again and Grover sighed. "Alright, I'll make a deal with you. You tell me about your screw up, and I'll tell you about mine."

Piper frowned at him.

"I will. And trust me, it's ten times worse than what happened to you," he told her, pulling out another can from God knows where and started chewing away nervously. Those things were so sharp, how in the name of the Gods did he swallow them so quickly...?

Piper sighed. "Fine. Deal." And then she told him everything.

* * *

If Piper had anything to say about Grover, it would be that he was a great listener…or he was at least great at _pretending _that he was. He didn't interrupt once and seemed engaged throughout the whole story, nodding every now and again to prove it.

When she'd finished, she waited for him to start telling her once again that 'it wasn't her fault' and give her false hope, but that didn't happen. Instead, he told her something that she hadn't been expecting.

"Juniper, my girlfriend, saw Drew spying on you and Annabeth when you were on the beach. We think that she was waiting for the right time to use what she'd heard against you," he said simply and Piper stared at him. "And as for that net that fell on you, Juniper also saw her and some of the Hephaestus campers setting it up just before capture the flag started. Drew knew which path you were going to take – she had heard the plan – and made sure that the net was specially designed so that it couldn't be cut through. You were set up."

Piper opened her mouth too say something but she couldn't find the words. She found that she couldn't even say 'thankyou.' Eventually though, she found herself saying, "how did Juniper see all of that?"

"She's a Dryad." Grover shrugged. "They tend to see things all the time because they don't get noticed unless you look carefully."

Piper felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders and Grover smiled. "I thought that would make you feel better," he said, just as Jason let out a strangled cry in his sleep. Piper had almost forgotten that he was there.

"Thanks, Grover. And tell Juniper that I owe her one," she said, frowning over at Jason.

Grover followed her gaze. "You should wake him up. If his nightmares are anything like Percy's were he'll appreciate it."

Piper was about to reach over and shake him, but a thought occurred to her and she turned back around to face Grover.

"You never told me about your screw up."

Grover smiled cheekily and shook his head. "I'll tell you eventually, I promise…but not now. Wake Jason up."

Piper frowned. "You said you would! How about I wake Jason up and then you tell us?"

Grover blushed. "I'd rather not…"

"Why not?"

"Because it has to do with Thalia."

Piper's eyebrows shot up. "Okay, now you've _got _to tell us."

Grover rolled his eyes. "No I don't."

"Yes you do!"

"No I don 't."

"Please, Grover?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Come on!"

"Piper!"

"Grover!"

"What's with all the yelling?" Jason muttered, rubbing his eyes drowsily and sitting up in his seat.

Piper and Grover exchanged looks.

"Nothing," she said, after receiving a warning glance from Grover. "Are you alright, Jason?"

"Uh, yeah…just had another nightmare," he said, looking exhausted.

"Figures. What was it about?" Grover asked, his eyes locked on him. There was so much hope in his gaze...

"Um, well…" and Jason told them all about his dream and how someone named Dakota was helping Percy from the inside.

"How recent was this?" Grover asked, practically vibrating with excitement.

"I'm not sure…things are so hard to tell," he replied, looking Piper up and down as if just realising where they were.

"I'm fine," Piper answered before he could ask. Carefully, she peeled the blankets away from her lower body and showed him her heavily bandaged leg. He nodded and then reached out to take her hand, hesitated, but still grabbed it. Piper wasn't sure what to feel about that.

"So, Grover, tell us the story you were going to tell me about Thalia," Piper said, looking away from Jason but not letting go of his hand.

"You have a story about Thalia?" Jason asked eagerly, his nightmare forgotten.

Grover groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "Alright, Piper, you win. Happy?"

"Yes," she said with a grin.

And so, Grover told them the story of Thalia's pine.

* * *

**Jeez, this chapter was so hard to write! I had to take a massive chunk out of it to make it work - like a deleted scene. I might show you it later, but right now it seems pointless.**

**Anyway, now you know how Drew did it and there's going to be a lot of conflict in the next chapter. Drew vs Piper :D**

**R&R?**

**-Bell**


	10. The Argo wasn't built in a day

**Okay, so it is currently...-looks at the time- 12:41am here, I'm incredibly sick (my throat is killing me, I can barely talk, I'm coughing my guts up, my nose is blocked and my eyes hurt...), I'm exhausted, but what am I doing? Sitting at my laptop _determined_ to get this chapter up before I go to sleep x_x Yes, I care about you all that much. Remember that :P**

**I'm also up this late because...41 MINUTES AGO I TURNED 17! WOOT! So yeah, it's my birthday and I wanted to make sure that this chapter was up in time :) I have a lot of stuff on later, so I felt it important that I posted this now, haha.**

**Anyway. Sorry it took so long. As I've told you before, I'm back at school and it's a very hard year for me. I'll try to update best I can, but I WILL update. This fic IS going somewhere.I promise.**

**Things take a turn for the worst in this chapter, but I hope you like it :)**

* * *

_The Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 10_

_Piper_

On her crutches, Piper hobbled her way towards the Big House with Jason and Grover on either side of her. After Grover had filled them in on what had happened with Thalia so long ago, Jason had to assure him repeatedly that he wasn't angry with him as long as Thalia wasn't angry with him. The three of them had then talked it out further until Piper suggested that they should rest. Too bad they only managed about four hours of restless sleep before they all woke up again, feeling fidgety and unable to sit still. So after Piper had been fed some ambrosia – the food of the Gods – and felt strong enough, Grover managed to get hold of a pair of crutches so they could go find Annabeth. They tried her cabin first of course, but she'd apparently left really early and hadn't told anyone where she was going. So, naturally, that left the Big house.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Jason asked for the umpteenth time and Piper clenched her teeth. No, she wasn't ok. She was exhausted from lack of sleep and her leg was throbbing with pain where the massive dog had bitten her. But even so, she wouldn't be able to rest until she had talked things out with Annabeth…and confronted Drew. But the way Piper saw it, her half-sister was another matter entirely and could wait until she was better. Annabeth couldn't – she was more important.

"I'm alright," Piper said, giving Jason the best smile she could muster but it probably turned out more like a grimace. "I just want to fix this."

"Couldn't you have done it _after _breakfast?" Grover complained, his hooves kicking up tufts of grass as he walked. "I can't function without food."

"You didn't have to come," she told him, almost tripping. "You could have gone to help Leo and the Hephaestus campers."

Grover pouted. "And now you're trying to get rid of me? How nice of you. Maybe I shouldn't come next time."

"Next time?" Jason mused, opening the door so Piper could get in on her crutches. "What? You want to make this a weekly thing?"

Grover chuckled. "Why not. Once a week Percy can go missing, Annabeth can get angry and Piper can get attacked by a hellhound. Perfect."

Jason and Grover laughed and Piper smiled. It felt good to see them happy for a while. It was better than Jason being worried about Thalia or Grover worrying about Percy.

"What do you three want?" An annoyed voice suddenly boomed, and Mr. D appeared in front of them. Like, _literally _appeared. Never underestimate the power of the Gods and always be prepared. Never hang around them if you have a heart condition of any kind.

"Um…" Grover said, looking over at Jason and Piper.

"Oh look," Mr. D said, looking at Grover, "you've finally found some new friends. It's about time. The other two were starting to annoy me."

"Hey–" Grover tried, but Mr. D gave him a look that made Grover close his mouth quickly.

"We're looking for Annabeth," Jason said before someone could say something they'd regret. "Do you know where she is?"

"Pfft. What do I look like? A Demigod GPS?" Dionysus scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Please," Piper tried, trying to keep her annoyance in check. "You sure you don't know where she went?"

"I believe that she went to see Percy's parents for a while," Chiron suddenly said, appearing in the doorway behind them. The three of them spun around as his hooves clopped against the marble floor. "We needed someone to fill them in on the new details and keep them updated – his mother is still very upset. She and Nico left two hours ago."

Piper sighed. "When will they be back?"

"It's hard to say," Chiron said sadly, looking between the three of them. "Annabeth didn't say how long they would be, but she didn't seem to be keen on coming back anytime soon."

"Didn't she want to…" Grover trailed off, suddenly having great interest in his hooves.

"Didn't she want to what?" Jason asked, frowning.

Everyone was looking towards Grover now and he blushed. "I may have overheard them talking about doing some more searching…"

"Searching for what, Mr. Underwood?" Mr. D enquired, suddenly interested in the conversation."Speak. Now."

"Uh, well, I didn't mean not to tell you, I just thought that you knew and well, I didn't think that she'd actually do it and it's all just so-"

"Grover," Chiron tried gently. "Just tell us."

"Annabeth and Nico wanted to find the Roman camp by themselves," he muttered. "They told me not to tell anyone, but I think that they're crazy, so I think it's best that you know."

Jason, moving quickly, suddenly stepped in front of Grover and grasped his shoulders firmly. His skin was pale and his blue eyes wild. "Are you saying that they went to the camp by themselves?" He shoudted. His voice seemed to bounce off the walls.

Grover stepped back a bit and almost slipped on the cold floor. "Y-yes. I think that's where they plan to go. Why?"

"There's no way that they could get there though," Jason said frantically, probably trying to reassure himself more than anyone else. "They can't get there-"

"Pegasai," Piper said suddenly, the thought hitting her hard. "They took the pegasai, didn't they?"

Jason didn't even bother to look at Grover for confirmation and turned to Chiron in panic. "We've got to stop them. They'll get themselves killed!"

"Is that such a bad thing?" Piper heard Mr. D mutter but everyone thankfully ignored him.

"If the camp is as dangerous as you claim it to be, then yes, we will have to do something," Chiron told them, his face turning grim as if a dark storm cloud was now looming over his head.

"But how do we do that?" Grover asked. "We have no idea where they are, only where they're headed!"

Everyone looked at each other – well, Mr. D kind of looked at the ground as if he were already bored with everyone – as their minds tried to piece together a plan.

"I do not think that there is any way of stopping them now," Chiron said at last, stepping out of his wheelchair so that his white stallion hindquarters appeared. "Annabeth and Nico are two very stubborn, very determined demigods, and even if we did contact them, I'm almost certain that they wouldn't listen."

"So we just let them march straight towards their deaths?" Jason shouted angrily. Piper had never seen him like this. She lay a hand on his shoulder and could feel all of his muscles tense beneath her fingertips.

"No," Chiron said, his hooves clopping against the floor. "That's not what I mean. We can't do that either. But what we can do is tell them that we'll meet them there."

Everyone paused as if trying process this information.

"What do you mean?" Piper finally asked, probably voicing everyone else's thoughts.

"I mean that you need to finish the Argo II. And fast."

* * *

"Why can't we just go after them ourselves?" Jason asked tiredly, obviously having no clue what he was doing anymore. Piper desperately wanted to help him somehow, but she didn't know what to say. Probably because she was feeling just as bad as he was about all of this.

"Because that would be just as dangerous and you need to stick together. If you wanted to go, who would you take? Leo's duties lie here and Piper is injured," Chiron argued logically. "You need to understand that you three are a part of something bigger than what you are currently dealing with and you can't just go running into these situations without thinking them through."

Piper felt Jason's shoulders slump in defeat beside her and she saw Grover chew at his lip.

"I have no doubts that you, Leo and Piper will accomplish many great things," Chiron continued, resting his hands on Jason's shoulders. "And I believe that you can help Annabeth and Nico before it is too late. Don't give up just yet, Jason. We're all still rooting for you."

Jason looked towards Piper with his electric blue eyes, studying her closely. She gave him a weak smile and nodded, feeling suddenly lightheaded. They could do this, they could do this they could do this…

* * *

"We can't do this!" Leo yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. "Have you ever heard the phrase 'Rome wasn't built in a day'? Well I have news for you, neither was the Argo!"

"We know that," Jason said, and Piper could see some of the campers look their way and whisper behind their hands. "And we're not asking you to finish in a day."

"No, but you may as well be! A week? Seriously? I thought that I was the one that was meant to annoy _you _and make all the jokes," Leo scoffed, looking over a blueprint and pulling a hardhat out of his magic tool belt. He kind of looked like an angry construction worker whose pay had just been drastically cut. Piper actually had to hold back a laugh.

"Look, you'll have everyone's help," Jason said patiently, watching as more and more campers, Satyrs and Nymphs – among other beings – flooded into the room. "And we're going to help you as much as we possibly can. We can do this."

Leo slammed the blueprint he was reading down hard on a worktop. "What happened to sailing on the Solstice when the God's power is the strongest? How do you expect this thing to fly without wind, huh? A thousand handheld fans behind the sails?"

"Leo, what part of 'son of the _sky _God who can control the winds' don't you get?" Jason asked, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrows at his friend. "_I _could make enough wind to sail the Argo II…probably."

"Probably? That has the same meaning as 'maybe,' 'unlikely,' 'perhaps' and 'doubtfully,' and none of those mean _definitely,_" Leo retorted and Piper rolled her eyes. Since when had Leo become a thesaurus?

"I know it looks impossible," Piper tried, using a different approach to Jason. "But can you at least try? We can't just give up on Annabeth and Nico. Please."

Leo sighed and looked over towards the ship. Pause. "You owe me," he said simply, pointing a finger at Jason. "You owe me big time."

Jason shook his head and smiled. "Remember when we were crossing that ice bridge and I had to save you-"

"What? You keep track of what we owe each other? That is so not cool, man," Leo said, shoving Jason playfully and turning towards the ship. "Keep it up, guys! Break in fifteen!"

* * *

**YAY! A week...but will this cause problems? Probably. Jeez, Annabeth and Nico, can't play by the rules, can you?**

**Going to bed now. Need sleep.**

**R&R? Pllleeeeeaaassseeee? It would be a great Birthday present :)**

**-Bell**


	11. Interlude

**Guess what guys? This wonderful chapter is called the 'interlude' because it's in Nico's POV, giving a better reason (kinda...) for him and Annabeth to run off. Now that everyone's split up, I thought that I'd do that once in a while to give everyone an idea about what's happening with them. It was also a LOT of fun to write :)**

**There is also a big surprise in this chapter! I just know that you guys will love it :) Or, well, you'd better, because I wasn't sure whether to write it or not hahaha.**

**Anyway. I'm also sad to say that...I made a REALLY bad mistake in the prophecy! I was so annoyed with my own stupidity. Basically, I was reading over it again to double check plot details...and I read the line '**_**Only one can save you from the traitor and the Titan's revenge' **_**and then thought "Uh...since when are the Titans part of this story? Didn't Percy destroy...CRAP!"**

**So yeah. I messed up. but it happens to all of us sooner or later.**

**If you go back and look for it now you'll see that I fixed it. Just know that it's really 'Giant's revenge' and not 'Titan's revenge'. Sorry guys!**

**Alright, I'm done rambling. Onto the chapter! And I hope that you like my little surprise ;) There'll be an AN at the bottom explaining my decision about writing it.**

**

* * *

**

_The Son of Neptune_

_Interlude_

_Nico_

"You sure we should be doing this?" Nico asked cynically, knuckles white from gripping the mane of his Pegasus so hard. He was a son of Hades, and last time he checked, his father was lord of the _underworld, _and not anything above that. And yet, here he was, riding a Pegasus in Zeus's domain, practically _asking _to be blown out of the sky.

"Nico, for the hundredth time, I'm sure," Annabeth said, her grey eyes directed straight ahead at the open sky before her. They had almost reached Percy's place.

"Alright, fine, I won't ask anymore, ok? But…" Nico swallowed hard and looked nervously up at the sky. Was it just him, or could he _feel _small sparks of electricity pulsing through the air? "…but can we fly a little lower? I don't want to get fried!"

Annabeth shot him a look over her shoulder, but her face softened as she nodded, descending a little bit.

"So you clear on the plan?"

"Yeah, yeah," Nico muttered. Sure, he may have questioned countless times whether they should go through with the plan, but that didn't mean he didn't know the stupid thing off by heart. "Fill Sally and Paul in on the new news, don't stay for more than an hour – maybe two if necessary – and then head towards the bay area stopping only at our designated stops. Now please enjoy the rest of the flight," he added with a smirk and Annabeth frowned.

"Nico! This is serious!"

"I _was _being serious," he said, holding back laughter, leaning forward a bit to try to make himself more comfortable. "And what happens again when we get there?"

Annabeth's jaw tightened into a line, her expression full of determination. "We use what Jason's told me about the camp to our advantage and sneak in the way that we planned."

"Gotcha," Nico said, nodding in response. "And I suppose that the main part of that plan is not dying?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Nico, pretty much _all _of our plans involve that strategy one way or another."

"But this one's different," he muttered under his breath as Percy's apartment building came into view. "This one involves trying to save someone who probably doesn't even remember who we are."

* * *

_The Son of Neptune_

_Interlude_

_Percy_

Percy could feel his heart hammering in his chest from excursion and his breathing becoming rapid as he circled Bobby, one of the campers from the Mars cabin. He closed his eyes for a second, tuning out the roar of the crowd and trying to focus on the advice that Dakota had given him before he was practically forced into the amphitheatre.

"_Bobby is the strongest guy here by far," _Dakota had said, gripping Percy's shoulders with both hands._ "But don't let that fool you. When it comes to speed, he may as well be trying to move through water that's pulling him in the opposite direction. That means that you've got to be fast. Oh, and don't-"_

"_Don't show weakness. Got it," _Percy had interrupted while rolling his eyes. That was practically the camp's motto.

"Tired, Percy?" Bobby teased, bringing Percy back to reality. He took a deep breath and his green eyes shot open to meet Bobby's brown ones.

"No, I'm just getting started," he said calmly, feeling his muscles tense and his whole body ache in anticipation. But something stopped him lunging into the battle. His eyes darted to Bobby's spear and he felt his face twist into a frown. It was so familiar…but his mind couldn't place it.

"ARGH!" Bobby suddenly cried, losing patience and lunging towards Percy, his spear aimed right at his heart.

But…why didn't Percy feel threatened?

Thinking quickly, he jumped out of the way and Bobby continued to charge forward like an angry bull, missing Percy by miles. The crowed howled and Percy stared blankly as the huge camper skidded angrily to a halt and turned to face him, his eyes blazing. Bobby charged again and Percy braced himself, darting out of the way a second time and slashing at Bobby with his sword as he did so. The son of Mars grunted in pain from the hit but managed to stay on his feet, swaying slightly.

_Something doesn't feel right about this_, Percy thought, frowning at the shield that was pulling his arm down. Relying on instinct, Percy ripped it from his arm threw it away like a giant Frisbee, deciding that it was a dead weight that prevented the use of his left arm.

"Not liking the shield, huh?" Bobby asked as he approached again, slowly this time.

"It doesn't feel right," Percy said with a nod, placing his other hand on the hilt of his sword and twisting it comfortably in his hands. _That was much better._

"Alright, so we'll make this a fair fight then?" Bobby said with a smirk, his own shield clattering to the ground. "I can beat you without the extra help anyway."

Wasting no time, Bobby then jabbed at Percy with his spear and he blocked it easily with his sword. He then took this opportunity to swiftly slash his sword sideways and Bobby cried out as it made contact with his arm. He gritted his teeth as blood started leaking down his skin like a broken tap and the started to chant Percy's name, finally happy that the battle was going somewhere.

Bobby, obviously feeling angered by this, grasped his spear and thrust it forward, just in time to hit thin air. Frustrated by Percy's fast movements, he propelled forward it again and again, until it finally it hit it's mark and Percy fell back on the floor with a jolt, sending dust swirling through the air.

Percy could feel static racing through his body and his head was spinning from the power of Bobby's thrust…but he didn't feel pain. In fact, aside from feeling slightly dizzy, he felt fine. But why-

Percy suddenly cried out, clutching his head in his hands and shutting his eyes tight.

"_It will make you powerful," _a voice said, seeming to shatter his skull. Percy's nails dug into his head to prevent it from falling apart._ "But it will also make you weak. Your prowess in combat will be beyond any mortal, but your weaknesses, your failings, will increase as well." _The voice quickly faded away, but that was replaced with pure agony. Every muscle in his body was screaming and he felt as if he were drowning. He struggled against it, his mind desperately trying to find a hold on reality, but there was none.

_The cord,_ someone suddenly said, interrupting the pain. _Don't forget your lifeline, dummy!_

And then he remembered what was happening. The Styx. He was in the Styx.

Suddenly, there was a tug at the small of his back and the pain ebbed away.

"_Hold on, Seaweed Brain," _the same soothing voice said, and his muscles relaxed. "_You're not getting away from me that easily."_ She was so familiar, but he couldn't remember who she was, and this seemed to bring a different kind of pain. It was like…someone had pulled out his heart as well as taken memories.

"_You're such an idiot sometimes," _she continued, but her voice was fading fast.

"No," he whispered, feeling tears stain his cheeks. "Don't go…"

"_Come on. Take my hand…"_

He reached out blindly, but there was nothing. He was alone.

Slowly, he felt his eyes creak open and he could see Bobby towering over him with his spear. The crowd was silent, but he knew that they were still there, watching to see how it would play out. No one would help him. That wasn't the way it worked here.

"You were screaming," Bobby said stupidly, not moving his spear out of Percy's focus. "I didn't think that my spear caused that much pain."

Percy shook his head and sat up, completely ignoring the spear that was now buzzing with electricity. "It wasn't the spear," he muttered and Bobby just stared at him, confused.

Percy slowly rose to his feet and the crowd cheered, expecting the fight to continue. Percy turned in a circle, looking at every one of the campers. The same thoughts kept racing through his head, over and over. _I don't belong here…this is all wrong…why am I here…? _

He shook his head to rid himself of the thoughts. _Focus, Percy. Focus._ He turned back to Bobby. "You can't beat me," he told him simply, and this seemed to get Bobby mad all over again, and he pointed his crackling spear at Percy's neck.

"Yes I can!"

"No…" he said quietly, his sword hanging at his side now. "You can't. I've bathed in the river Styx."

Bobby's jaw dropped open slowly and his eyes widened, his glance darting between his spear and Percy. But then he closed his mouth quickly and shook his head vigorously.

"You're pulling my leg, Son of Neptune. You're trying to get me to back down!"

"No!" Percy said, his voice pleading. "I'm not kidding-"

"I'm done fooling around!" he suddenly shouted, running forward and Percy sighed, deciding to end it already.

He blocked the first and four blows with ease, letting Bobby tire himself out a bit and by the fifth block, Percy held his sword steady and then used all his strength to push Bobby's arm back, leaving him open. Using this opportunity, he then stabbed at his armour, making him stumble and then used the hilt of his sword to hit Bobby in the face. Bobby staggered and cried out, his nose dripping blood, but he didn't fall. Instead, much to the pleasure of the crowd around them, he came at Percy again, his spear sending sparks flying everywhere. Percy blocked his strike _again _and then, with a flick of his wrist, sent Bobby's spear soaring across the arena, leaving him defenceless. Bobby took a few steps back so that there were two inches between himself and Percy's sword and clenched his fists.

Percy couldn't believe it – he _still _hadn't given up.

"It's time to end this," Percy said, breathing hard. He let his sword fall to his side once more as he felt a familiar tug at his gut.

"What the-" Bobby exclaimed as water started seeping through the ground around their feet.

Percy's breathing slowed and he relaxed as the water got higher, putting him completely in his element. He could feel the power coursing through his body, filling every fibre of his being with new found strength. He then directed the water towards Bobby and it started wrapping slowly around him like a snake, twisting itself until only Bobby's head was visible. He struggled hard against the water but it was somehow holding him in place just above the ground. Percy thought that he kind of looked like a caterpillar that was almost finished making a cocoon.

"Now what?" Percy asked over the sudden roar of the crowd, looking around for Dakota or Gwendolyn – the only two people that had bothered to make contact with him.

"Dude, that was awesome!" Dakota suddenly exclaimed, rushing out of one of the many doors onto the arena and raising Percy's hand in the air like they do on the wrestling shows. He cleared his throat, getting ready to shout to the crowd. "It looks like Percy has earned his title as praetor of the third legion!"

Percy sighed, looking around once more at the unfamiliar faces around him, most of which were cheering him on. But why? He had no idea what he was doing, or why he was there and he felt so confused and lost.

And then there were the dreams. The most common ones were about a girl with blonde hair, grey eyes, and a name that he just couldn't seem to place. But at least he knew what she sounded like now. She was the one who kept him anchored to his life while he was in the Styx after all. She was important. He was sure of it.

* * *

**So in case we have any slow people out there, yes, the surprise was that most of this chapter is in Percy's POV :D After much thinking, I decided that I wanted to write a chapter in his POV so my friend and I talked it over and thought that it was possible. So every now and then there will be an 'interlude' and I'll update what's happening to Percy :)**

**Also, I know that 'praetor of the third legion' may sound confusing now, but all will be explained over time ;)**

**I hope that you liked the little surprise :)**

**R&R?**

**-Bell**


	12. Time to set sail

**Hey guys :)**

**I know I haven't updated in a while, and, as usual, I feel really terrible about it :( I'm sorry I left this for so long but...I've been really stressed out lately. I'd tell you why, but I'm sure that you'd all rather just read on right? It has been a long time after all and I'm sure that you'd all like to know who's going on the quest and what their plan of action is...**

**So, without further ado, here's another chapter of SON :)**

* * *

_Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 11_

_Leo_

"Alright, alright, quieten down!" Chiron shouted over the noise and hammered his big hoof on the marble to get everyone's attention. Leo instantly looked up from his checklist of things that needed to be done and started distractedly peeling off the outside off his pencil. He couldn't stand this; sitting around the table with the other camp counselors while there was still so much he had to do. He now had a deadline, and if he didn't reach it-

"As you all know," Chiron said, cutting off Leo's panicked thoughts, "the Argo II is set to sail in exactly 12 hours and we still need to decide on the crew. So far, we know that Jason, Piper, Leo, Thalia, Annabeth and Nico are going, which leaves two places, according to the Oracle."

"Wait, how do you know for sure that Annabeth and Nico are going?" Connor Stoll asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Chiron managed to contact them while they were at Percy's apartment and told them the new plan," Jason explained.

"Which is?" Will Solace from the Apollo cabin asked, stretching out the word 'is' and leaning forward.

"Leo?" Jason prompted.

"On it," Leo said, reaching into his tool belt – which he now had a habit of never taking off – and pulling out a small piece of paper about the size of his palm that had been folded an impossible amount of times.

"You're kidding, right?" Piper asked, looking at the paper cynically. "Couldn't you have found a bigger one?"

Leo smiled knowingly. "Wait for it," he said before starting to skilfully unfold the paper, stopping a minute later when it was the size of the ping pong table, revealing a huge map. Piper stared at it in wonder but didn't ask questions – they were so used to weird stuff happening that nothing seemed to surprise them much anymore.

"So anyway," Leo started, his finger starting on Long island and then travelling to New York. "Our first stop is going to be over New York where Chiron arranged to meet up with Annabeth and Nico. And when I say 'over' I mean it literally. I know the mist is powerful stuff, but I think it's probably safer to keep the boat, well, _floating_ while we pick up the 'runaways,'" Leo explained before tracing the red line that Jason had drawn earlier until his finger stopped over the Gulf of Mexico. "Then we'll land on the Gulf of Mexico for the night, find a nice secluded spot and then rest up before heading off in the morning." His finger continued along the red line and stopped on Colorado. "Our next stop is in Colorado where Jason agreed to meet Thalia, and then from there we'll head straight to…" he tapped the Bay area with his finger tip and smiled. "Any questions?"

"Great plan," Clarisse said slowly, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "But what I want to know is what's going to happen when we get there. I mean, didn't any of you listen to what I told you before? If a _giant flying ship_ shows up those Romans are going to go crazy and attack us!"

Leo looked over at Jason and they shared a knowing smile.

"We'll fill you in on that as soon as we know who's going," Jason said, folding the map up at best he could and handing it to Leo who rolled his eyes and started to refold it to keep his fingers busy. "But that's the basic plan. So who's in?"

"I'm coming," Clarisse said, her spear hitting the marble loudly, and the tip sent off a small spark making everyone jump in their seats. "I want to know what this plan of yours is and see if it's stupid and idiotic enough to fail and start a full out war between the Romans and us."

"Well that's a great excuse to go," Leo muttered and Clarisse glared daggers at him.

"I'm going too," Grover said, standing up. "I'm not about to let all of you go off to rescue Percy without me."

"So I guess that's everyone then," Piper said, beginning to count on her fingers. "Me, Jason, Leo, Annabeth, Nico, Thalia, Clarisse and Grover. Everyone ok with that?"

Thankfully there were no objections and Leo felt his attention span finally snap.

"Great, thanks for coming everyone. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a ship to build," he said, standing up so fast that he sent his chair clattering to the floor and headed out the door, ignoring Jason and Piper who were calling him back.

* * *

Leo stood on the deck with a clipboard in one hand, a pen in the other and a white hardhat on his scruffy head. They were meant to set sail in less than twenty minutes and Leo was really on edge. And when he was on edge he needed to keep himself busy, so while Jason, Piper and the others got their gear together, he had grabbed his backpack and decided to inspect the _almost _complete Argo II one last time. Or maybe two…if he had time.

And then there was still one last thing that he had to do, and he wanted to do it alone. But for now it could wait.

After ticking off another one of his boxes on his list, he leaned heavily on the main mast to check the strength of the wood. Once he was satisfied with the result, he tilted his head up towards the top, his eyes analysing the yard and the large sail which was bundled up tightly with ropes. At this point, he could only hope that Nyssa had checked them correctly so it wouldn't fall and or kill anyone - namely Jason who was to stand just behind the two sails.

He then did one last inspection of the ropes and knots that secured the sails before heading below deck, hitting his head accidently as he went under.

Rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand and muttering under his breath, Leo headed towards the front of the ship where the five cabins – complete with hammocks along the walls – had been expertly built. This way, there were just enough of them for the eight campers on the quest, plus an extra space for Percy upon Annabeth's request, just in case. And although they were built to be very small, Leo had figured that since it was only two to a cabin and everyone would spend most of their time on deck or in the control room, everyone could live with it. It was only two days after all.

After assessing each of the cabins in turn, Leo continued through the ship, walking past the lavatories and heading into the control room which took up half of the whole Argo II. Inside was an old computer equipped to be a GPS so they could monitor their position, and along the main wall was a huge screen which was connected to the computer so they could project whatever they wanted on it. In front of the screen there was a large sofa, donated by the Ares campers who had swiped it from the Big House, causing Mr. D to have a fit – but it was worth it. Not to mention that the idea of sitting on the sofa and watching movies on the big screen while sitting inside the giant flying ship sounded so awesome to Leo. Too bad he was helping to lead the quest and needed to, you know, focus.

The other impressive feature that had been added to the control room was the interactive whiteboard which was hanging on the other wall of the room. This had been given to them by the Athena campers, and although they'd only given it up because it was old and broken, it wasn't too hard to get working once Leo and his siblings got their hands on it. They even managed to give it a heat sensor so they could use it like you would use an iPad. Well, a giant iPad the size of a large window anyway.

Once he'd completed a full inspection of the massive room and resisted the urge to start watching 'Transformers' on the giant screen, Leo turned and walked into the last room; the stables. Well, it wasn't much of a 'stable' – more like two stalls for Pegasai, but they still called it that anyway. Originally it had just been a spare room and Leo didn't really know what to use it for – although Travis and Connor Stoll insisted that it should be used as an arcade – but after Jason and Annabeth discussed a strategy over an IM they had told Leo to use it as a stable. Annabeth had even decided on which Pegasai they were going to take – although Leo didn't really see a difference. The first one was a typical white coated Pegasus called (insert a Pegasus name here until Leo can remember the real name), and the second was the complete opposite as it had a shiny black coat and its name was… something to do with a Casino.

Jeez, when his dad said that he wasn't good with "living organisms" he wasn't kidding. But really, why someone would name a _Pegasus _after a game that could be played in a Casino, Leo wasn't sure but...Blackjack! His name was Blackjack!

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he walked out of the room and back up onto the deck, ticking another box on his list as he went.

* * *

Back on deck Leo found Jason waiting on the ground below him.

"Leo, would you hurry up already? We really need to get a move on!" He called up and Leo grinned, hiding his nerves.

"Dude, do you _want _to be crushed by a mast?" Leo asked and Jason shot him a look. "What? It could happen!"

"I'm sure everything's fine."

"And why would you assume that?" Leo teased with a smirk. "Is it because I'm the best ship builder in the world?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "Just get down from there and help me get the Pegasai and the other campers."

"Not until you say it!"

Jason groaned while Leo looked down at his clipboard and _half_ ticked another thing off his list:

_Annoy Jason and get him to say that you're the best boat builder in the world. Half check._

"Leo, you're the best boat builder in the world, happy?" He said, obviously growing impatient with his friend.

_Check. _Leo smiled as he ticked off the second last thing on his list. "Yes I am, Jason. I'll meet you at the stables. There's...something I've still got to do."

"Alright, but be quick," Jason said, racing out the door.

Leo smiled sadly as he reached into his pocket and took out drawing he'd done of the boat as a child, examining it carefully. Everything that was in the drawing was now part of the Argo II. Well...almost everything.

He walked slowly to the stern of the boat and carefully picked up Festus's sad looking head in his arms and carrying it back to the front.

"Do me proud, Festus," he murmured as he started to attach the large head to the front of the Argo II.

* * *

As Leo stood on deck and looked out over camp half-blood he could have sworn that everyone at camp had come to see them off. Or maybe they were there to laugh at him if the ship didn't fly…

Leo brushed the thought from his mind and smiled at Jason and Piper. It was going to work. It was going to work. It was going to work…

"Are we going to start sailing or not?" Clarisse asked impatiently, her big arms folded across her chest. Grover stood behind her, chewing nervously on a can. Leo guessed that his whole bag was probably filled to the brim with them and hoped that if he ran out he wouldn't resort to eating the Argo II. Did Saytyrs even eat wood?

"You ready?" Piper asked, looking between Leo and Jason and Leo shook himself awake before nodding.

Leo motioned for Piper to help him untie the knots to loosen the sail while Jason got into position just behind the large piece of fabric.

"Don't do anything until I say so," Leo told the son of Jupiter, letting Piper finish off the remaining knots and taking his place at the tiller. He'd designed the mechanism himself so that he was able to manipulate the sails by tilting the tiller at a certain angle rather than doing it manually. He had also designed the sails in a way that they could be blown upwards – kind of like a hot air balloon, but more on that later – as well as forwards. It had taken a lot of planning and work from the Hephaestus campers, but they had somehow managed to pull it off.

Carefully, he changed the direction of the sails slightly so that they wouldn't smash into Thalia's pine on the way out and tilted them upwards so that the boat would sail up rather than drag along the ground.

"Alright, Piper, your turn," he said handing the tiller to her and standing next to Jason behind the sails. His job was to give the Argo II a bit of an extra boost, but the flying was really all up to Jason.

Everyone who was watching from below and the campers on deck fell into silence as they held their breaths.

_It will work…_

The boys nodded at each other and then Jason started up the winds while Leo felt his body heat up, sending a tingling sensation throughout his muscles. He was careful about how much heat he used, however, and eventually the two combining powers making the Argo II creek in anticipation.

_Come on, come on… _Leo thought, biting his lip. _It will work, it will work, it will work..._

And, sure enough, the boat started to rise off the ground, slowly at first, but then it picked up speed and flew straight into the air. Leo let out a loud 'whoop!' as the crowd cheered and everyone on deck shared some smiles and laughed.

"You did it Leo!" Piper exclaimed excitedly, and Leo looked at her over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I knew it would work," he said proudly, lessening the heat slightly. "Alright Piper, like I showed you. Less up and more, you know, forward."

"First stop, New York!" Jason said, with a grin.

* * *

**Yay Leo! You finally made the boat flllyyyy!**

**Yup, I'm tired and need to sleep I think. I'm sorry if there are any mistakes in this chapter - it was sooo hard to write and I'm really tired :( The next chapter gets better - more talk of Percy, Annabeth and Nico will come and there will be a twist! I mean, I can't just let this journey be easy for them, can I? MUhahahaha :)**

**And one last thing to say about this chapter - I had to specifically draw out flight plans and boat plans myself! I also had to learn all the boat talk...gah, it was so annoying, but cool. So now I have a random map sitting in my folder as a reminder of where they're going :)**

**Alright, bedtime.**

**R&R?**

**-Bell**


	13. Annabeth and Nico join the Quest

**Hey guys! Yeah, so it's been...four months. Whhoooaaaaaaa...I know that that's really bad and I do feel awful, really :(. But I've just been so busy with work and school and volunteer work that I haven't had time to write ANYTHING. Not even my own personal works ;(. But anyway, I haven't given up on this fic yet, I swear! I have it all planned out and although I've been suffering from writers block these past few months, a few days ago I sat down and wrote three chapters, non stop. I'll post the next one in a few days and see where how we go from there...if there's still anyone left to read.**

**Also, as you all know, SON OF NEPTUNE COMES OUT IN A MONTH!**

**I read the first chapter about a week ago (screamed and laughed like a fangirl while doing so as well haha), and although it's nothing like this fic (I had a feeling that it would be set at the Roman camp...) I plan on continuing this anyway with the same plot line as planned. I hope that's ok with everyone.**

**Anyway, I won't keep you from reading anymore. Just know that this chapter is kind of a filler, and the next one will have a little action in it ;)**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

_Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 12_

_Leo_

"You sure this is it, Grover?" Leo yelled over the wind as he leaned over the railing, analysing the apartment building with interest. It honestly didn't look like much. But, wait, what was he supposed to expect? Most demigods were troubled kids, and almost none of them were extremely rich like Piper.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Grover shouted back. "So do you want me to go alone, or do you want to come as well? Or we could just-"

"Hey guys!" Jason interrupted, looking pale. "Can you just go get them already? I can't stay like this forever!"

"Sure you can," Clarisse said as she headed over to the two boys. "You guys should go in, I'll watch the Argo."

Leo looked at her, then at Grover, then at Jason and Piper and saw them all staring at him, waiting for him to make the decision. Well, he made a decision alright. He decided that he suddenly didn't like this 'leader' thing anymore. So, making a snap decision which he was often famous for because of his ADHD, he bolted over to the mast about a meter from where Jason was standing and pulled at a little compartment on the deck. When it came loose, a button appeared and as he pressed it two big, metal cylindrical tubes shaped like giant telescopes started rising from below deck.

"Piper, you know that button I told you not to press?" Leo shouted over Jason's ongoing wind. From his position just in front of Jason it was almost deafening, but he managed to just pick up Piper's drowned out reply of "Yeah?"

"Well I need you to press it now!" He yelled watching as the two cylinders came to a halt.

"What?" She shouted.

"Press the button!" Leo replied, trying to propel his voice further.

"What about the button?"

Leo scowled.

"Oh for the love of the Gods!" Clarisse yelled as she strode over, completely ignoring the wind buffeting everything around her, and pressed the red button just behind the till. At this, the sails seemed to angle themselves so that they were facing upwards and collecting air coming in from below, rather than behind. The four corners of the sail then started coming together and the fabric almost seemed to stretch, forming two large parachutes and Jason had to readjust his position so he was directly under them in order to get the wind to travel inside the enclosed space. The Argo II started travelling up at an alarming rate.

"What in the name of Jupiter are you doing?" Jason exclaimed, as Leo rushed to one of the metal poles and undid another compartment that was in the metal. He turned the little dial that released the propane gas, cursed when he realised that he should have developed a more organised system to make his life easier, and then ran across the deck to repeat the same thing on the other metal pole. As soon as he'd done this, he rushed over to the till and hit yet _another _button – a green one this time – on the small control panel and slowly turned a dial. Suddenly, the two metal cylinders sprouted a column of fire, making the boat shoot up so fast that Leo was almost forced onto the deck. Over the wind he could hear Piper screaming.

"Stop the winds, Jason!" He shouted desperately and, thankfully, his friend stopped, collapsing on the deck. The ship slowly started to descend - which was good, because Leo could no longer make out the apartment building.

"Could you warn us before you do that, Valdez!" Piper screamed at him over the weird silence which had followed when the winds stopped.

"Sorry! I couldn't hear anything over the wind. Well, other than your screaming," he replied with a smirk and she hit him hard on the arm as Jason staggered over.

"So why did you make me use the winds to bring us all the way here when you could use that thing?" Jason asked in exasperation, looking about ready to collapse onto the deck.

"Because they run on propane, like hot air balloons and I don't have a magic unlimited supply. I was hoping to only use them for travelling at night so you could, you know, sleep," Leo replied dismissively, trying hard not to laugh at the annoyed look his friend was giving him. "Besides, who needs them when you do your job so well?"

Jason rolled his eyes as Grover came stumbling over, his hooves clopping against the wood and his face looking green. "Can we just grab the pegasai and go get Annabeth and Nico now? I don't think I can take this much longer."

"Alright," Leo said, deciding not to tease him in case Grover started throwing up on his boat or something. "Clarisse, you stay and take care of the boat while the rest of us go."

"Gee, why didn't I think of that?" She said, pretending to think it over. "Oh, that's right, I did. Hurry up already. We're on a deadline."

_Like we didn't already know that,_ Leo thought, but kept it to himself.

So while Jason, Piper and Grover went below to tend to the pegasai, Leo quickly showed Clarisse how to work the controls and then headed below to the stable area as well. Once the three demigods were sitting comfortably on the horses, Leo pushed down hard on a handle, thankful that it wasn't another button, and watched as a large door opened up, exposing them to open air.

"Uh," Grover gulped, trying not to look down. "You sure this is safe?"

"Nope," Leo replied, leading the pegasus to the edge and watching as it leapt into the air with Piper and Grover on its back.

Jason gave him a hand up onto their pegasus and then they quickly followed Grover and Piper, landing almost silently behind the apartment building.

"Alright, so far so good," Grover said, dropping his backpack and taking out his hat which he had taken off to save it from blowing away, and stuck it on his head. Sure, you could still definitely see the shape of his horns, but Leo figured that the mist would cover it. Probably.

After they'd tethered the pegasai to a nearby pole, Grover led the three demigods around to the front of the building and headed up the stairs towards Percy's apartment, stopping awkwardly at the door.

"Well, aren't you going to knock?" Jason asked with a frown, staring at the door.

"What? Oh yeah," Grover said almost nervously, knocking lightly on the door with his fist. "I'm just worried about what the mood's going to be like inside…"

Leo hadn't thought of that. He was able to get through most difficult situations with his sense of humor, but when it came to worried, upset parents who were missing their son…well, he'd probably be best to keep his mouth shut.

There was a bit of shuffling from behind the door and then it creaked open, revealing a woman with long brown hair and tired, sad eyes. Her face lit up a bit when she saw them, but not much. Leo suddenly felt really awkward as if he were intruding into a strangers family matters…which he kind of was.

"Grover, it's so good to see you," she said kindly, giving him a hug and he returned it with a grateful bleat. "And you three must be Jason, Piper and Leo. It's nice to meet you all. I'm Sally Jackson, Percy's mother. Come on in."

The four of them trailed in to find a man sitting on a sofa with Annabeth and Nico, drinking hot chocolate and talking in quiet tones.

"It's about time you guys showed up," Annabeth said, standing up with her now empty cup, placing it on the kitchen counter, and then starting to gather her things together. "We've been waiting for hours."

"It's a giant, flying ship!" Leo retorted. "You can't expect it to get anywhere fast…unless I attached, like, a rocket to it or something…"

"I think the wind power is enough as it is," Grover said quickly and Leo suppressed a smile the man stood up and introduced himself as Percy's stepfather, Paul. Once again, Leo felt like he was being intrusive considering he'd never met Percy and his mom was looking so sad…

Leo looked away from her gaze, trying push away the thoughts about how he didn't have anyone to care about him in the way that Sally cared or Percy. Not anymore.

"Thanks for letting us come in, Mrs. Jackson," Jason said politely. "But I don't think that we'll be staying long. We need to keep on schedule so we can get to the camp as quickly as possible and…uh, help your son."

Leo was right about the awkwardness; although Annabeth and Nico seemed right at home. Annabeth grabbed Nico's and her jacket off the coat hanger behind the door while Nico quickly gulped down the last of his drink thirstily before picking up Annabeth's cup and then heading to the sink to wash them.

"I understand completely," Mrs. Jackson said kindly, looking towards the kitchen. "I didn't think that you'd stay long, so I made you all these," she reached into a small kitchen unit and pulled out a basket covered with a cloth that smelled suspiciously like chocolate chip cookies. She passed it to Piper who smiled with gratitude. "Thank you so much. You didn't have to do this."

Sally shook her head and then bit her lip distractedly as if deciding something. Eventually she turned around and picked up a small picture in a frame that was sitting on a shelf and handed it to Annabeth. Leo leaned over and saw that it was a photo of her, Paul and Percy together.

"Take this with you as well…it might help him remember."

Annabeth nodded and gave Mrs. Jackson a hug. "We'll bring him back."

"Of course you will," she replied. "You all seem to have things well under control."

"You sure you don't need anything else," Paul asked, looking between everyone but they allshook they're heads.

"We have the pegasai, a magic flying ship, a team of demigods, and chocolate chip cookies. What else do we need?" Leo told him seriously and everyone laughed. Thank the Gods.

"We'd better be going then," Annabeth told them, and everyone said their last goodbyes before heading out the door.

"We all finally ready to get going now?" Leo asked as they headed down the stairs. "I think we've had enough interruptions."

"Yeah," Jason sgreed. "Let's do this."

* * *

**So yeah, as I said, not much to this chapter, but its SOMETHING, right? I'll be sure to post the next chapter maybe during the weekend sometime, so look out.**

**I apologize again for the lack of updating. I hope that you can forgive me :(**

**-Bell**


	14. Jason battles an old foe

**Alright, So I know that it's not Sunday, and I apologise for that, but I _am _updating :) And it's a really long chapter with some action in it, so I hope that this will keep you all happy.**

**Also, you might wanna look out for the next chapter, because there may be some Jason/Piper stuff AND a new plot twist that involves Nico! So be excited for it guys!**

**But until then, enjoy the chapter :)**

* * *

_Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 13_

_Jason_

By late afternoon, as the sun was setting, the group of Demigods (and Grover) were just starting to sail over Georgia, which was very near their stop off at the Gulf of Mexico. However, despite this, Jason was starting to feel mentally and physically exhausted and although he'd told Leo twenty minutes ago that he'd be able to make it, now he wasn't so sure. He'd been controlling the winds for hours without a single break and he was starting to feel as if he might pass out any minute. His eyes drifted tiredly over to Piper who was still intently focussing on steering, but she looked as tired as he felt. Her eyes quickly flickered over and met his for a moment but she blushed and turned away. Jason gritted his teeth and willed the winds to continue as he looked around for any sign of Leo and Annabeth. When he couldn't find them, his mind groggily registered that they were probably still below deck with the others, analysing their position. He turned back to Piper again and realised that black spots were starting to cloud his vision and his body felt heavy, like there was this enormous weight pushing down hard on him. The winds were still whistling past his ears, but was he imagining things, or were the sounds getting softer?

"Piper!" He ground out, his head starting to spin.

Piper looked over and must have seen his pained expression because she left the till and sprinted across the deck to Jason side, swerving as the winds hit her.

"Are you okay?" She shouted loudly to be heard over the noise. Her voice sounded panicked. Jason dug his nails into his palms and resisted the urge to groan, shaking his head. He couldn't stop yet, if he did, everyone on the ship was in trouble. But he was finding it so hard to focus.

Piper looked between the unmanned till and Jason. "Just hang in there," she said, going over to the metal poles – which Leo called the 'burners' – and starting to open one of the hatches. Jason watched her half-heartedly, his eyes starting to droop. He tried to push them open and stay awake but a mist seemed to descend over his mind, separating him from the real world. He was only aware of a strange sensation of falling and his name being screamed before he slipped away into nothingness.

* * *

When Jason awoke, he was surprised to find himself in a huge tree. He blinked drowsily and tried to sit up in the branches, only to feel his body ache in agony, forcing him to lie back down. It was as if every muscle in his body was on fire and in the ever-growing darkness he could just make out the small cuts and scratches from where he'd fallen through the branches on his way down. Or, at least, he thought that he fell through the branches.

Clenching his teeth, he managed to push himself up into a sitting position and have a look around. As far as he could see in the gloom, there was forest in every direction and he was in a tree about twenty meters from the ground. Jason closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to think of how he ended up here. What was the last thing he remembered? Oh yeah, the boat, and Piper, and the wind…

His eyes shot open wildly as he looked up through the canopy, trying to see the Argo II. He hadn't been able to hold it up and Piper was trying to start the burners…and then what? He'd passed out obviously and fallen into the trees below. But how had he survived a fall like that? And what happened to everyone?

He opened his dry mouth to call out to someone to see if they were around, but closed it quickly. Who knew what monsters were lurking in this forest, hidden by the darkness?

Well, although he wasn't sure about a lot of things at the moment, one thing was certain to Jason; he couldn't stay in that tree forever waiting for something to find him. He needed to check for injuries, get down and then try to figure out where he was.

So, as carefully as he could, he swung his legs over the branch he was on and then stood on another one below. Instantly his head started to spin violently and the world seemed to rock from side to side under his feet, but he gripped a bough for balance and managed to stay upright. And aside from a few aches and pains he didn't think that he had any serious issues. Well, besides the normal problems of not remembering anything anyway.

Jason set his jaw determinedly and started to descend down the tree towards the ground. However, when he reached about halfway a loud rustling noise stopped him in his tracks. His head turned swiftly towards the sound and squinted, willing his eyes to see through the trees and the darkness. The sound got closer and suddenly he could make out a woman's voice. It wasn't one of the crew from the Argo II but it was still familiar.

"Are you sure you smell something, dear?" She said, as she came towards Jason. "Because it is rather hard to tell with all of the monsters and things around."

There was a low growl in response.

"Very well, I'm sorry. We'll have a look shall we?"

Suddenly, in the moonlight, a woman walking a dog appeared below him. She was hard to make out in the darkness, but Jason could tell that she was very plump like a balloon and her dog was about the size of a large cat. It sniffed the air proudly as if it were trying to find its next meal.

Jason's blood ran cold. He suddenly knew who they were and wished that he could just fade into the tree trunk.

Time seemed to stand still as the little dog looked up and caught sight of him, and it began to bark. But it wasn't a little yappy bark that would be expected from a dog that size; it was more of a rough, deep sound, as if its throat was made of sandpaper. Jason thought that if a lion could bark, that's the sound it would make.

"Ah, so that's where you've been hiding, Jason!" the woman screeched cheerfully. "My, if it weren't for my son we never would have found you! But do tell me, what are you doing up in that tree?"

"I'll tell you why I'm up here if you tell me what you want," Jason replied, watching the dog and woman wearily. "I thought that you were only allowed to challenge heroes with my father's permission."

"Oh, well you see, we found a much better…_patron_ to serve, dear; someone who has much better ideas on who I shall challenge." The little dog growled once more, looking impatient. "But that's not important. How about you climb down from there so my son can kill you?"

"I think I like it better up here," Jason replied, fully aware that he was too tired and injured to fight Echidna, the mother of monsters, and her son, the Chimera. But if he didn't get down on his own, he knew that they'd force him.

"Well, if you say so," she said, shaking her head sadly. "Get him sonny."

Jason's heart thundered in his ears as the Chimera grew larger, its small dog body beginning to transform into something unrecognisable. It had the head of a lion with a mane that dripped dark, red blood in the moonlight, and Jason could see its razor sharp teeth glistening as it snarled. It pawed the ground with its goat hooves and its serpent tail hissed viciously as if unable to wait to strike any longer. It was then that Jason knew that if he stayed in the tree, he had no hope. Up in the branches he was off balance and couldn't swing his sword without holding onto something, which made fighting impossible. So, being as careful as he could and ignoring all instincts to stay up out of reach, he began a cautious climb down, his eyes locked on the monsters below him. The Chimera beared its teeth threateningly, but as Jason got closer to the ground, the creature backed off, as if giving him room. He landed on the floor awkwardly and immediately pulled his Gladius, standing ready in a fighting stance.

"That's the spirit dear," Echidna hissed happily, and from this close, Jason could now see her snakelike features clearly. Not that he wanted to see something that horrible. "No use in trying to hide from your fate, is there?"  
"Who are you working for?" Jason demanded, switching his Gladius nervously in his hands, preparing to fight. The Chimera roared angrily.

"My son has had enough of your questions, Jason Grace. It is time for you to die," Echidna replied impatiently and it was then that the monster charged at him.

Jason dived out of the way, his muscles screaming in protest, but even so, he managed to push himself up onto one knee as the Chimera charged by, and he sliced his sword across the Chimera's flank. It howled in anger and pain, turning on him and knocking him aside with its huge goat hoof. His body flew through the air like a rag doll before slamming against a tree. He cried out in pain and his vision started to go funny.

Echidna tutted. "You'd think that the son of Zeus would put up a better fight like last time," she complained and Jason could just make out the shape of her long, serpent tail through his blurry vision. "Well, no matter. My patron will be pleased as long as you die. Go on my dear son. Finish him. Now!"

Jason couldn't believe that it was going to end like this; killed by a creature whose mother had the same name as a harmless anteater from Australia. He gritted his teeth and raised his sword, so at least they could say that he went down fighting.

But as soon as the Chimera went to pounce, it suddenly howled in pain, spinning in a circle to face an attacker that Jason couldn't see. But just as it turned, it howled again, lashing out wildly everywhere, not seeming to know what was happening. It then blew out a gush of fire, toasting half of the trees in their general area and Jason had to jump behind a large one to avoid the wall of flame.

"Who's there?" Echidna screeched, her reptilian eyes shifting wildly around. "Show yourself!"

Jason breathed heavily, blood dripping into his eyes from a cut on his forehead. What in the name of Zeus was going on-

All of a sudden, Annabeth appeared in front of him and he almost slashed her in half with his sword.

"Don't do that!" He whispered/shouted, his hands shaking.

"Do what?" she retorted, "save your life?"

"Ah, a daughter of Athena," Echidna hissed wickedly, making Annabeth tense. "Annabeth I bet. Still looking for Percy Jackson, my dear? Well I'm sorry to say that you'll never find him. He was so incredibly weak against my son the last time we met. He has no hope in surviving what is to come. And neither do you."

Annabeth stepped out from behind her the tree, knife in hand. Jason followed reluctantly, not wanting to leave her alone, although he wasn't sure who could do more damage; Echidna or Annabeth.

"You know nothing about him!" She shouted angrily, and Jason could see her hands clutching the knife so tightly that her knuckles turned white. But why wasn't she attacking? Jason squinted into the trees and blinked in bewilderment when his eyes met Piper's. She was hidden behind a wide-trunked tree a few meters behind the mother of all monsters. She held a finger to her lips and then disappeared behind the trunk.

"Oh don't I?" She asked, bringing Jason's attention back to her. Echidna's forked tongue protruded uglily from her lips and her green skin glistened as she slithered towards them, stopping when she was next to the Chimera. "I don't think I really need to know anything about him to know that, like you, he will die." She raised her clawed hand as if to strike, but was interrupted by Annabeth screaming "Now!"

Nico suddenly materialised from the darkness and swung his sword through the air, leaving a large gash in the Chimera's stomach. It stumbled clumsily backwards and Clarisse appeared, shouting some sort of Greek battle cry and wielding her electric spear menacingly. Before the monster even had time to retaliate, her weapon had found the creatures heart, and its mane seemed to fizzle from the voltage. It then groaned and slowly disintegrated into dust.

"No!" Echidna wailed, reaching out her hands only to grasp nothing. "You will all pay for this! I will destroy you myself!"

She then started to grow in size, until she was about four meters tall and towering over them. She hissed wickedly and sparks spewed from her mouth straight towards them. Thinking fast, Jason grabbed Annabeth's wrist and tugged her back behind the tree, narrowly missing getting toasted. Once they caught their breath, the two demigods then leaned out from their hiding place and watched as Clarisse stabbed at the monsters tail, making her screech in outrage. Grover then started to play his reed pipes and as Clarisse dived out of the way, thick vines started to entwine themselves around her tail. This didn't last though because with a flick of her tail they were broken.

Jason turned back to face Annabeth. "Do you know how to beat this thing?"

Annabeth's brow furrowed in thought. "I don't think any hero _has _beaten her. Ever."

"Well that's reassuring."

"Shut up and let me think."

Grover suddenly rolled past them, only stopping when his back came into contact with a tree, leaving him upside down with his furry goat legs in the air. "Well could you think faster?" he pleaded. "I don't know how much longer we can hold her off."

Jason frowned for a moment, his head starting to pound and his vision going fuzzy. Everything else around him seemed to fade away into nothingness as a voice filled his head…a voice that belonged to an old friend who he couldn't quite place.

"_I don't know how much longer we can hold her off, Jason," _the voice seemed to echo in his head.

"_I know," _his own voice replied. _"But there's got to be a way. I mean, my dad wouldn't have sent her as a challenge if we couldn't defeat her!"_

There was a pause.

"_Wait," _his voice said slowly, as if in thought. _"I think I have an idea…"_

Annabeth and Grover shouting at him drew him roughly back to reality.

"It's no use, he's hit his head," Annabeth told Grover, standing up and leaving Jason on the ground. "We're going to have to do this without him."

"Wait!" He said desperately, managing to slowly rise and lean against the tree. "I think I've defeated her before."

"Jason Grace!" Echidna screamed, making the three of them jump. "You can't hide behind your little friends forever!"

"What?" Annabeth asked, anxiously glancing out from behind the tree to make sure that Leo, Piper, Nico and Clarisse were still fighting.

"I've fought Echidna before and won. And I know how to," Jason said simply, his mind racing.

"Tell us then!" Grover said, hopping from foot to foot as Echidna hissed and screamed in the background.

Jason shook his head and got to his feet, wiping the blood off his forehead with the back of his arm. "No time. Just help distract her." And with that, he ran out from behind the tree.

"Clarisse!" He called, not caring whether or not Echidna heard. But he didn't count on the fact that him shouting her name would distract her just long enough for Echidna's tail to come full circle and send her flying into the trees.

"Jason!" Piper called. "What are you _doing_?"

Echidna hissed as her eyes narrowed on him. She knew he was up to something.

"Keep her busy!" He replied dismissively, bolting away in the direction that Clarisse had been thrown, managing to counter a slash from Echidna's claws with his sword as he went.

"Gee, thanks for the help, Jason!" Leo shouted sarcastically, but Jason didn't have time to feel bad because his mind was occupied with finding Clarisse.

Eventually he came across her groaning form amongst the trees and she sat up.

"What is your problem, punk?" She shouted, and Jason was scared that she was actually going to attack _him._

"Wait Clarisse, I know how to defeat her. But I need to borrow your spear," Jason said quickly.

Clarisse paused as if surprised and looked between him and the spear. "Why?"

"Jason!" Echidna yelled, and the two demigods whirled around to see the monster looming right behind them. Their friends were coming up behind her, but Jason knew that they wouldn't make it in time to help them.

"Clarisse, please," he said, and she shoved it into his hands almost immediately, taking his Gladius from him in return. As soon as he grasped the electric spear it seemed to crackle with more electricity than before, as if it were responding to his touch. He could feel the power pulse through him, filling him with renewed energy. He suddenly felt as if he'd just woken up after a two day nap, rather than having barely slept for two hours. It felt amazing.

"I know what you're trying to do, Jason Grace," she said, her voice raspy. "But it's not going to work. You don't have enough power."

"Oh yeah? Just watch me!" He replied, the winds seeming to pick up, but maybe he was imagining it.

Jason came at her with the spear, thrusting it powerfully into her scaly snake tail, making her scream in rage. But as she took a swipe at him, Jason ducked and backed up through some trees.

"You missed me!" He called in a mocking tone and she yelled again heading towards him. "Come and get me you freak!"

She _really _didn't like that and she was on him faster than he thought she could move, but he turned and ran back, willing his friends to stay out of harms way. He needed to wait for the right moment.

"I know who you work for now," Jason told her, turning to face her and holding his voice steady while slowly backing away. She continued to slither forward, looking too angry to even form a sentence. "Gaea, your mother."

"Of course! Who else would it be? And now that you know the truth, it is time for you to die, son of Jupiter!"

_Now, _Jason thought and as she slashed at him again, he used her arm as a springboard and leapt into the air, using both the winds and his momentum to propel him upwards. Then, using as much strength that he could muster, he thrust his spear into Echidna's heart, followed by a lightning bolt so powerful that he felt his hair stand on end.

"No!" Echidna screeched, her form starting to flicker. Jason landed heavily on the ground in front of her snake tail and watched as she screamed and writhed around until she crumbled to dust.

He breathed heavily, leaning hard on the spear which was still crackling faintly with leftover energy. Now that the adrenalin had worn off he felt exhausted again and was very aware that he was losing blood fast.

"Jason!" Piper called, and he looked up just in time for her to tackle him in a hug, making him stagger in exhaustion. But even so, he couldn't help but smile.

"Way to go, man!" Leo shouted excitedly. "I mean, did you _see _yourself? Well, of course you didn't, but that was incredible!"

"Thanks, man," Jason replied, feeling a bit overwhelmed. All he'd wanted to do was help his friends.

"Nice work," Annabeth added, but she seemed to be distracted, looking over at Nico who appeared to be avoiding her gaze.

"Guys, I hate to break this up, but I smell a _lot _of monsters around here," Grover said nervously, looking around and jumping as a stick broke in the distance as if proving a point.

"Grover's right," Nico interrupted, sheathing his sword. "Can we continue this back on the ship?"

"So I didn't crash the Argo?" Jason asked in surprise, but feeling really relieved.

"Of course not," Clarisse said, rolling her eyes. "We wouldn't be here if you did, punk. Now let's get out of here."

* * *

**So there you have it! I figured that since Percy never defeated Echidna and the Chimera in the books that I'd get Jason to finish the job ;) And everything seemed to fall into place when I learned that she was considered to be Gaia's daughter! Haha.**

**But anyway, thanks for reading. R&R? I'd love to know what you guys think.**

**-Bell**


	15. A line of the prophecy is revealed

**Soooo, hey guys! Sorry for the wait, but this chapter took a while...and don't worry, I plan to keep this really short.**

**So I read the real Son of Neptune and thought that it was amazing. Don't worry, no spoilers here (I'm not that harsh), but I just wanted to let you know that SOME, not all, ideas about Camp Jupiter (the real one designed by Rick Riordan) may be incorporated into this fic. For those of you who have read the book, I hope that I don't confuse you too much, k? Just know that some characters are different, and some from the real SON may not even make an appearance at all (like Octavian because I really can't stand him at all -.-)**

**Another Disclaimer: I do not own the Son of Neptune or any ideas or characters that may, or may not, be incorporated into this fic. They all belong to Rick Riordan who wrote another amazing book :)**

**Anyway, hope you guys like the new chapter. I decided that Jason and Piper needed to let off some steam in this one, haha. :P**

* * *

_Son of Neptune_

_Chapter: 14_

_Jason_

As it turns out, after Jason had passed out and his body was thrown clear of the Argo II, Piper had managed to get the burners working just in time to slow their landing into the trees. Amazingly, the Argo II had somehow managed to crash-land on top of some trees which used their branches to hold it up. And, as far as Leo could tell, it was also completely undamaged.

But their luck ended there.

The real issue for everyone was that it was some twenty meters off the ground and the six demigods, and a satyr, had to get on board. So, the only option really was for everyone to partake in an unplanned, agonising climb and scramble dangerously onto the ship.

But, somehow, after a lot of cussing in both Latin and Greek and a few near death experiences (demigods can never go anywhere without those) where some of them nearly ended up as pancakes, they were back on track, sailing once again towards the Gulf of Mexico as planned. And just as Leo and Annabeth started arguing over how late they were running and Nico rolled his eyes, trying to intervene, Jason, feeling absolutely exhausted, announced that he was going to go below deck before he passed out. No one seemed to hear, but he was too tired to care.

He shook his head and turned to leave but Piper was standing there, her face pale.

"I'll come with you," she told him, walking the rest of the distance across the deck and heading under. Jason followed her into her and stopped only when they got to her bunker.

"You okay?" Jason asked her as she sat on her hammock and brushed her hair off her face. Jason leaned against the wall, fearing that if he didn't his legs would give out.

"I'm fine," she said tiredly, her eyes seeming to change colour, as they always did, in the dim lighting. But looking at her, Jason thought that it was obvious that she wasn't.

"You're kidding, right?" Jason asked with a chuckle. "I mean, we've seen each other at our worst…I think I should be able to tell whether or not you're okay by now." To his relief Piper laughed slightly and he smiled. "It wasn't your fault, you know," he continued. "I was stupid – I should have known my own limits."

Piper shook her head. "That may be true, but I messed up as well. I wasn't paying much attention to what I was doing. I was too busy thinking about…" she cut herself off and sighed. "…stuff."

Jason's jaw clenched and he sat down on the Hammock next to her, which was kind of awkward because the shape forced them to squish together. He wasn't ready to have this discussion. Not since his memories had really started to return. Ever since the fight with Echidna, for some reason or another he was starting to remember things. It was probably because he was starting to get so close to home. He could suddenly remember more about his friends and the monsters that they'd fought together. He could remember Krios and his own demigod army more clearly, charging toward Mt. Othrys, and he could see the dark palace crumbling before his eyes. He could remember the camp too, Camp Jupiter, with its Roman houses and different temples. And, for the first time, he could remember Reyna clearly. She was one of the Praetors of the camp – one of five. They had worked really closely together and were really good friends. But there was something else…when he thought about her his chest tightened and his heart rate increased. He knew that they weren't together – no officially – but Jason couldn't deny that if Juno hadn't taken him to Camp Half-blood…if he hadn't met Piper, something might have happened between them.

"Jason," Piper said gently, and he felt his shoulder being shaken. His eyes snapped open and he blinked drowsily looking at Piper. She smiled gently, but spoke in an accusing tone. "You fell asleep and started drooling on my shoulder."

Jason frowned and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Sorry," he muttered, "just thinking about…stuff."

She shoved him and he laughed. "Don't mock me, Jason Grace. You don't know who you're messing with."

"Oh, but I think I do," he replied with a smirk, and it was then that a warm feeling washed over him making the memory of Reyna dissolve in his head ever so slightly.

Piper smiled and shook her head, her eyes gleaming and Jason realised once again how beautiful she was. He must have zoned out again because Piper clicked in front of his face a few times. He felt practically drunk on tiredness and he was obviously losing control of his emotions...and maybe all reason. Because although he knew Reyna was still out there, they weren't together. Not really. And right now all he could seem to think about was how much he really liked Piper.

"Go get some sleep, alright? You're probably going to need it," she told him quietly, but she was studying him, searching his eyes.

Jason swallowed and his breathing became shallow. He felt himself subconsciously leaning towards her, as if in some sort of trance, and Piper's eyes widened, but from fear and excitement he wasn't sure. And just as he was closing the distance between them loud footsteps echoed throughout the bunker and a door slammed outside, making Piper and Jason jump. Jason shook himself out of his trance and blinked a couple of times. Now that the moment of impulsiveness had passed he just felt confused all over again.

He got slowly to his feet and looked out into the hallway to see Leo, heading towards him.

"Hey, man," he said with a yawn. "Annabeth and Nico are staying on deck and keeping watch first. You ready to hit the hammocks?"

"Yeah," Jason said shortly and he looked back over at Piper who was staring at the ground between her feet. Jason wasn't sure because of the dim lights but he could have sworn that she looked disappointed. Great, now he felt absolutely terrible. "I'll meet you there, Leo."

Leo raised his eyebrows and then smirked in a knowing way. "Ahhh, take all the time you need," he replied with a wink, and before Jason could argue he disappeared into his bunker and shut the door.

Jason walked back into the room and knelt in front of Piper, having a moment of indecision before taking her hands.

"I-I'm sorry," he murmured, unable to meet her eyes. But the truth was coming out now, whether he liked it or not. "My memories are coming back now. There was a girl, Reyna, and we weren't together, but we might have been if…"

"If you hadn't come to Camp half-blood," she finished and he looked up at her, seeing the sadness in her expression.

"Yeah," he said. "I don't know what came over me before; I think it may be the lack of sleep. But, Piper…I, uh…" his throat felt dry. Should he say it or just let it go?

"You what?" She whispered, her eyes locked with his.

He sighed. _No, don't make things too complicated,_ he thought. _You'll only hurt her more_.

"I think that we should get some sleep."

Piper kept her face carefully blank. "Good idea. 'Night Jason."

Without thinking too much about it, he kneeled up and kissed her gently on the cheek."'Night," he replied quietly, dropping her hands and leaving the room without another word.

* * *

Surprisingly, Jason dreamed that he was on deck with Annabeth and Nico, which was really pointless because if he'd wanted to stay on deck with them he would have. But he decided to just go with it.

"So let me get this straight," Annabeth said, frowning at Nico. The two demigods were leaning over the railing and staring out to sea – they must have landed in the Gulf of Mexico while Jason was sleeping. "You've been having weird dreams from some hooded guy who told you that Echidna was going to attack us?"

Nico looked troubled, his dark hair falling in his eyes. "Yes. And I also think that he was the same guy who got the hellhounds to attack Jason and Piper. But I still don't get how he did it."

Annabeth rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands, looking tired. "Is there any way for someone to gain control of Cerberus? I mean, doesn't he only take orders from your father?"

Nico sighed in frustration. "That's just it! As you just said, my father is the _only_ one Cerberus will listen to when it comes to orders as huge as leaving his post. And it couldn't have been him because when I eventually took Cerberus back to the Underworld Hades was furious. It took me _forever _to get him to believe that it wasn't me who'd somehow smuggled him out."

Annabeth's eyes suddenly widened and they seemed to sparkle with knowledge.

"What?" Nico asked slowly. "I know that look; what are you thinking?"

"If you wanted to, do you think that _you _could control Cerberus?"

Nico backed up. "Hey! I didn't send him to attack anyone!"

"No, that's not what I meant, Nico," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. "What I was trying to say is-"

"Hello again, Nico."

Annabeth and Nico spun around so fast that they almost bumped into each other and drew their swords. A tall figure stood there, shrouded in a dark cloak that covered his face. But as Jason looked closer he could see that it wasn't just dark, but it was _made _of darkness. Pitch black smoke swirled around the fabric, licking hungrily at the air as if it were devouring as much light as it could. But the weirdest thing about it was that Jason couldn't shake this feeling that he'd seen it somewhere before. But, like everything else in his life right now, it was still a little fuzzy.

"Who are you?" Annabeth said, asking the obvious question. Her eyes suddenly seemed like storm clouds. "What do you want?"

The figure chuckled. "Giving my name would not be sufficient to my plans, Annabeth Chase. And as for what I want…well, to put it simply, I want you two to continue to remain blissfully ignorant about what's going on behind the scenes of your miserable lives. And in order to do this," he paused, seeming to turn directly towards Nico. "I need _you _to come with me."

Jason looked over at his friends and saw anger and determination pass across their faces, their weapons held high, ready to fight. But Nico suddenly let his sword fall to his side and his anger seemed to fade.

"Nico!" Annabeth exclaimed in disbelief, but before she could attack Nico interrupted.

"I know who you are," Nico blurted, barely moving. "I've had other dreams about you! You're from-"

But the hooded figure either didn't care what Nico had to say, or just lost all patience, because before he could finish, the cloaked guy came at him. Annabeth, thinking quickly, stepped bravely in front of him and tried to attack him with her dagger, but when she slashed at him, the blade seemed to be eaten up by the darkness. Annabeth gasped in surprise and before she could do anything else, the dark figure hit her over the head with something that Jason couldn't see, making her fall to the ground unconscious.

Nico gripped his sword and scowled as he looked down at Annabeth with concern. Jason wanted to run over and help but he couldn't move. Stupid dream world.

"You're not going to get away with this," he said fiercely. "Percy and Jason will figure it out."

The cloaked guy laughed evilly, no mercy in his tone. "Percy Jackson and Jason Grace," he said their names as if they were vermin. "I think they're the _least _of my problems. And as for the rest of your useless friends, none of you stand a chance."

And then he spread his cloak and the smoke seemed to engulf them both, plunging them into the dark abyss.

* * *

Jason sat upright in his hammock, his eyes darting around the bunker anxiously. It was completely silent except for the usual creaking noises made by the Argo II as it bobbed up and down on the water. Jason leapt out of his hammock and ignored how his head spun as he shook Leo awake.

"Wha' iz't?" Leo mumbled, his face buried in his pillow.

"We have trouble!" Jason exclaimed, pulling at his friends' arm impatiently. "Come on!"

Leo's eyes shot open and he sprung to his feet, nearly knocking Jason over in the process, and grabbed his tool belt, obviously understanding the severity of the situation. The two boys then bolted down the hall and stumbled up the stairs and onto the deck. It was still dark out, but the moon was still high and it illuminated the deck with an eerie light. Jason could make out Annabeth lying on the deck and he sprinted over to her. There was no sign of Nico.

Jason got to his knees beside her and checked her pulse.

"What happened?" Leo asked frantically, looking around deck. "And where's Nico?"

"The guy in the black cloak took him," Jason said simply, relieved that she was still breathing.

"What? A guy in a cloak? I thought that we were demigods on a quest, not some characters in a horror movie!"

Jason shook his head. "I'll tell you more in a sec, ok? But let's wake Annabeth up first."

"I have just the thing," Leo said quickly, reaching into his tool belt and pulling out a spray bottle topped with water.

"You can find a spray bottle in a workshop?" Jason asked sceptically and Leo shrugged.

"Apparently you can also get these as well," and then he pulled out a garden hose with its end stuck inside his belt. "If this demigod thing doesn't work out I now know that I have a great future in gardening."

Jason snorted. "As long as you don't try pulling out any fertilizer out or anything..." he muttered as Leo twisted the nozzle and a gush of water squirted out onto Annabeth. She sat up abruptly and coughed.

"Where…what happened to Nico?" she asked, her eyes panicked. "Is he…?"

"Gone," Jason finished and Annabeth's face paled.

"Oh no," she murmured, clutching her head. "The prophecy...what was the line again?"

"_But eight shall not arrive at any cost."_ Leo supplied. "But you don't think that..."

The three of them were silent for a moment.

Eventually, Jason cleared his throat, trying to get his thoughts to work with him. "Well, now it looks like we have more problems to deal with than just Gaia. And…" He cut himself off.

"And what?" Annabeth murmured.

Jason gritted his teeth, trying to remember. "I think I've seen that cloaked guy before."

* * *

**And that's the end of the chapter :) I hope that you guys liked it!**

**-Bell**


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